GENRE

Steve Neal

"Genre's are instances of repetition and difference"
"Difference is absolutely essential to the economy of genre"

• There need to be differences so it's more interesting - if we constantly repeat music videos then people won't watch because they'd get bored. We need to put our own twist on it.
• More repetition would not attract an audience, so texts often exhibit the conventions of more than one genre
• Music videos - changed over time - used to be lots of narratives - then dance videos without narrative - now narrative is coming back - lady GaGa - instantly recognisable but different
• Sub genre - different versions of music videos that merge conventions together
• hybrid genre

All genre's have a cycle

• Classic Stage - the conventions of the media text are clearly defined and the audience are clear of genre. Music video example - 80's - Micheal jackson - dance routine, light up tiles, signature dance moves, camera trickery 
• Experimental Stage - in this stage the conventions are clearly defined and the audience is clear of the genre of the piece. However, some of the elements of the text may be different, and abstract elements may be used - video may be shot differently. Micheal Jackson  - Alien Ant Farm - Smooth Criminal. Boy doing dance moves + lean, tiles, chimp and pvc jacket. Still rock conventions - band, guitars, moshing etc. Act one - interviews. Act two - articles that recently relate to the films themes. Django - slavery etc. Act Three - regulars - film reviews
• Baroque Stage - at this stage the conventions of the text are subject to parody and the conventions are subverted for comic relief. After this stage the cycle tends to continue from the beginning again. However  this movement can can years to complete. Magazines - private eye. I'm fat music video - same costume + beginning + same dance routine 
• My coursework lies in classic

Douglas Pye

• "Films have to conform to audience expectations about narrative"
• Sixth sense ending - doesn't conform
• Texas Chainsaw Massacre does - group off, die one by one and girl escapes
• Rihanna's music video does - couple in love, fall out and hate each other
• Beyonce's Single Ladies - doesn't - dance routine throughout - expect more than one location
• Smack my bitch up - violent and explicit video - turns out it's a woman 
• Frank Ocean's - thinking about you - think it's about a break up - voodoo 
• Our own - couple in love - typical - we found love + a dance scene with people getting ready to party 
• Follows conventional narrative

McQuail

• "The genre may be considered as a practical device for helping any mass medium to produce consistently and efficiently and to relate to its production to the expectations of its customers"
• Horror's in darker months NOT summer - not practical 
• Expectations - use genre to tap into a readily available audience, use codes and conventions to appeal to them
• For our music video - how did we promote our artist and how was it instantly recognisable to our audience
• Video 
• used conventions of locations - woods, club/limo, dance studio, brick wall
• Bright colours
• Tight, fashionable clothes - leggings, crop tops
• Camera angles - close-ups of the artist and two-shots of the couple
• Digipak 
• 
  
• Advert 

Robert Stam

• "While some genres are based on story content (the war film), others are borrowed form literature (comedy, melodrama) or from other media (the musical)"
• "Some are performance based (the Astire Rogers films) or budget-based (blockbusters), while others are based on artistic status (the art film), racial identity (black cinema), location (the Western) or sexual orientation (Queer cinema)
• Own production
• Video - dance scene - dance videos
• Performance based - dance scene
• Love song - boy and girl in love + love song + story based genre
• Location based - dance studio, woods, limo, brick wall, fun fair - bright, fun locations - conventional
• Digipak
• Advert

Tom Ryall

• The types of conventions found in genres can be grouped within the following categories
• Iconography - Symbols associated with this genre - 
• R'n'B - clothing - fashionable, but casual - location - dance studio, limo
• Narrative - structure - open/closed
• Simple narrative - couple in love - end - see the couple and then the camera rises up - suggests that they live happily ever after
• Representations - Characters/ stereotypes
• Mise-en-scene - styling - male gaze - dance routine - couple in love - bright locations - star persona - attributes linked with the artist
• Ideology - beliefs, overall ideas and themes 
• Conforms to societies norms and values - heterosexual couple in love
• R'n'B/ pop - 
• Interracial couple - represents different ethnicity's  
• Genre films can create pleasure through the use of both familiar and unfamiliar elements
• If we recognise genre conventions in a text it makes us feel comfortable with that text. As an audience we enjoy "spotting" the conventions and making comparisons to texts of the same genre
• We can also enjoy seeing conventions broken in a text, however if the filmmaker goes too far this can confuse and alienate the audience
• Lots of recognisable genre conventions - dance scene in a dance studio, brick wall scene with the artist singing

Describe how you developed your skills in the use of digital technology for media production how your ability to use these technologies developed over time.

My skills in Photoshop developed as I really didn't 

Editing on Mac

Hardware - camera - bridge camera for AS and then a mixture of cameras - DSLR for digipak, 

Describe the ways in which your production work was informed by research into real media texts and how your ability to use such research for production developed over time.

Describe the ways in which your production work was informed by research into real media texts and how your ability to use such research for production developed over time. 

Paragraph 1: what I produced and what I looked at for each project
Paragraph 2: AS - limited to music magazines - researched mainstream magazines - what I was interested in - helped my own project as I could really understand the conventions - bright colours - mainstream artists. Mastheads at the top - similar to what I researched
Paragraph 3: A2 - producing a music video - really important - cheryl cole + niki minaj influenced us - dance scene, fast editing
Paragraph 4: A2 even more research - still what I was interested in - video, digipak and magazine advert of the same artists - whole picture + see how they link - colour schemes, font etc - could also see how and artists 
Paragraph 5: Short conclusion

For our AS coursework we had to produce a music magazine front cover, contents page and double page spread where we had to research music magazines for this. Then in our second year for our Advanced Portfolio we could research music videos, digipaks and magazine adverts in order to produce it.

Our research for our AS coursework was limited to music magazines and we looked at front covers, contents pages and double page spreads. I looked primarily at mainstream magazines as they were what I was really interested in and looking at them really helped me to produce my own products as I could really understand and apply the conventions. For example, mainstream magazines like Q, NME and Rolling Stone had a bright colour scheme of red, white and black. I found that red was especially prominent as it was a colour that appealed to both genders, so I used it a lot in mine, such as for the flash and the headers. My own colour scheme was thus red, white and blue with black writing as it was bright and bold to reflect the mainstream, popular genre and would attract a wide audience.

For A2, we had even more to research as we had to research music videos, digipaks and magazines. Again, it was still what I was interested in so I researched pop/ R'n'B music videos and artists like Cheryl Cole's Call My Name and Niki Minaj's Moment For Life which really influenced my music video as it involved bright colours, such as for the setting and mise-en-scene, dance scenes and fast editing, which I included in my own video. Also, in Minaj's video there were lots of two-shots with her and Drake, which I made sure to include in my own video, such as when my couple run side by side.

Also, through researching artists digipaks, magazine adverts and videos I was able to see how all the products work together and see how they link . For example, Ed Sheeran used a lot of black, orange and white, while Katy Perry used a lot of pink and candy colours, which influenced my own as I used a lot of pink, purple, red and blue in my digipak and magazine advert.I also found that both the digipaks and magazine adverts used similar images, for example, Rihanna used a lot of close-up shots with her looking at the camera, which I included in my own work, where my magazine advert involved a close up shot of my artists in a similar pose. Also, by being able to research a wider range of texts I was able to really understand an artists image and how it can change through time, thus reflecting on their own sound of the album and I think that it really helped my product because I could easily make the products link through colours and fonts like those i had researched.

In conclusion, my production work was heavily informed by research into real media texts as I could easily research and understand firstly magazine conventions in the first year, which I then used to apply to my own product and then use this knowledge, along with the sheer amount of research that I did in my second year, to apply it to my three products.

1a Essays

Explain how far your understanding of the conventions of existing media influenced the way you created your own media products. Refer to a range of examples in your answer to show how this understanding developed over time.

For our AS coursework we researched front covers, contents pages and double page spreads, which helped me to understand magazine conventions in order to use them to produce a professional looking project. For example, I found that mainstream magazines, such as Q and NME, tended to have a bright colour scheme - the colour red was especially prominent as it was a colour that could appeal to both genders. Because of this I decided to use red for my flash and teasers. Also, both Q and NME had a simple colour scheme consisting of no more than three colours so it wouldn't make the pages too hectic and thus unreadable, so I decided upon a colour scheme of red, blue and black/white because of this.

I also found from my research that the artist on the front cover tended to be the main focus - they were in the center of the page with text surrounding them. For example, Blender magazine had Alicia Keys in black clothing against a white background, making her stand out more to the reader, while the masthead was placed behind her head;  the teasers and flashes were on either side of her and a call out was placed around her stomach, thus framing her face. She was also looking directly at the camera, drawing the reader in. This was also true of Q, NME and Rolling Stone. For my own front cover I had my artist looking directly at the camera, like Alicia Keys did, with a flash on the right hand side of her and teasers on the left. There was a callout/ pull-quote halfway down the magazine, like Blender's and then plugs at the bottom, framing my artists face and upper body so she was the dominant aspect of the magazine.

For my A2 coursework, understanding the conventions were especially important in producing a professional looking product. I realised that appealing to the male gaze was, once again, an important convention as it was in AS. For example, in AS music magazines tended to use high camera angles for female artists, thus making the reader view them from above because of this camera angle, making them inferior. In music videos I found that lots of close up, high-angle shots of the artists face were used to firstly stress their dominance as the artists, but to also suggest that they were inferior. Also, in both music magazines and videos females tended to wear more revealing clothes - on NME's front cover Lana Del Rey wore a crop top and so did Cheryl Cole in her music video. Because of this the artist in our music video wore a lot of leggings, crop tops, shorts and similar clothes to reflect this. We also used close-up shots of her face to follow this convention as well.

From my digipack research I found that, like the video, the artist was the dominant aspect. On Katy Perry's digipack she feature on four out of five pages. Again, it follows the male gaze - shes laying down, covered by a candy cloud while looking directly at the camera.

Need to explain how I progressed from AS to A2 - looked at a variety of sources rather than five magazines for front cover, contents and double page spread

Plan
Intro - research was important - amount of research important too - as little but for A2 did more - followed the albums and different music videos each artist did. understood so much that i was able to produce three products in a limited amount of time

AS - font - simplistic and readable  - mastheads tended to be capitals - similar font for the whole magazine - continuity + brand - looks visually appealing as well - doesn't confuse the reader. Similar idea for A2 - both digipack and magazine advert had the same font - graffiti writing and Arial
A2 - 
AS - model/ artists on the page - A2 how they were displayed in the video - talk about how we made sure to follow conventions - close-ups - lots of footage on the artist - mise-en-scene to reflect the genre

Colour scheme - both bright - AS to attract both genders and to reflect mainstream magazines - A2 bright again - male gaze - pop genre like Katy Perry and Taylor Swift 

Question 1A Revision Creativity

Question 1A Revision

Creativity

How creative do you think you were in the decisions you made when creating your c/w?

AS

A2

As we were told that we only really had to be creative for the evaluation, my research, planning and production pages weren’t presented as creatively as my evaluation because of this, thus impacting the overall creativity of the coursework. However, I did try to present these aspects as creatively as I could. For example, I used bright, eye catching boxes when I analysed the music magazines, instead of a long essay that wouldn’t have been as appealing. I also stumbled upon a widget that displays photos in a create way, so I thought that I would create a main research page with three of these widgets on them where pictures of the magazines would revolve and thus look more visually appealing than simply text and images on a page, which I thought was really creative. I also felt like I had presented my media theory well as I chose to present it creatively as a page from a notebook rather than just text on a page. Some aspects, were of course not as creative, but I did try to follow my chosen website colour scheme of blue and yellow and I tried to make it as appealing as possible. My planning wasn’t as creative as, due to the content, it did involve a lot of text and only some images, such as my choice of location and location recce. My production pages again were not creatively displayed, but they did have my finished product on them so their purpose was to only display this. The way in which I presented my evaluation was the most creative as I had to really think about how I was going to answer the questions to a high standard as well as presenting them creatively. I decided to use Prezi for questions 4 and 7 as there was a lot to write for them and they both needed supporting images and by deciding to use Prezi meant that I could do this creatively as I could also chose the colours, paths, text, the size of certain aspects etc. I could have also used Prezi for question 1, but as I had already used it twice and we could only be creative with the evaluation, I didn’t want to use it again, so I decided to make a video which involved recording me writing out my answer to question 1 and at the end I had included images of the pieces of paper, along with supporting images of my product. I was quite proud of the idea as I felt like it was creative, however I also think that in hindsight, the footage of mw writing the answer out wasn’t needed – especially as you couldn’t see what I had written when recording/ watching it back. The creative decisions I made for creating my actual product were reliant on magazine conventions as if I didn’t follow these then my product wouldn’t look professional. I also had to make sure that every creative decision that I made was appealing for my target audience as if they didn’t like it then in a professional context it wouldn’t sell. However, I think I was still creative taking this into context as I chose a bright and eye-catching colour scheme that was suitable for a mainstream audience and both boys and girls. In terms of the pictures that were used I made sure that I alluded towards magazine conventions like the male gaze as I used a female model but I also wanted a personality to come through. I could also chose what images I wanted to use in the final product, thus allowing me to be more creative in some sense, but restricted as well as I really wanted it to look professional. I think that my least creative page was my contents page as it primarily involved text and due to its nature did have to look a certain way. However, I think that I could have been more creative as it is fairly basic and it isn’t as unique as NME’s or Q’s contents pages. I felt that I was really creative for my double page spread – especially my second page where I had two images on one page as I felt that it looked authentic, but again I did have to ensure that I followed media conventions, thus restricting my creativity again.

I think the decisions we as a team made when presenting our research, planning, production and evaluation pages were a lot more creative as we were told to make every aspect of our coursework as creative as possible. For our research we used a mixture of Prezi and Glogster and videos as we could easily incorporate text and images. We also used more and different technologies like online timelines and iMovie to cater for our audience research and our research into the history of R’n’B, which was more creative than the decisions I had to make for AS due to the fact that we weren’t creative at all. We used Prezi and Glogster a lot throughout our coursework as it was a creative way for doing and presenting most of our tasks, so in a sense, we were more creative for our entire coursework, but also less creative as we primarily used these two to present our work. However, we did use more videos – especially for our planning, such as our costume videos and storyboard of our music video. In terms of our product we were extremely creative as we decided to record our own version of the song and then use it for the video. We also chose the props, costumes, locations and shots used in our video, thus giving us creative control as if we wanted to convey the boy and girl being more in love we would include more two-shots into the video. As for the software we used to edit the video, due to the amount of effects on there we could brighten or darken the lighting of the shots to convey a different mood – bright lights for happiness and dark lights for sadness. We also increased the speed and reversed some shots, however, the speed tended to increase when the tempo of the track did too, thus following conventions rather than our own creative decisions. Again, most of the video did rely on R’n’B music video conventions as we wanted it to look authentic so the creative decisions that we made were heavily reliant on this fact and we constantly made sure that it was too. For example, in the dance scene we used gym clothes that were easy to move around in, which Cheryl did in her video. The male protagonist also wore snap backs and nike trainers which is popular R’n’B fashion. Magazine advert ·         Again heavily reliant on conventions ·         Male gaze ·         Girly and bright colour scheme – pop R’n’B ·         Model had to be main focus ·         Text = same as digipack ·         Conventions – date, name of artist, website ·         Could chose the text – BUT final text depended on what our audience said Bus advert ·         Same text as digipack and magazine advert – artist awareness ·         Same images as digipack and magazine advert “””” Digipack ·         Heavily reliant on conventions ·         Some creativity ·         Felt like we weren’t as creative – just images of our artist in similar poses, no lyrics ·         HOWEVER we did do it in a pop art style with a purple section – some creativity ·         AND we had a tiled section ·         Conventions –name of artist, album name, song list, legal info ·         Could chose the text – BUT final text depended on what our audience said Merchandise ·         Pictures of the artist – original purpose ·         Use of same text of digipack and advert ·         Follow conventions to

Did the technology enhance your creativity or not?

(see notes on digital technology)

AS

A2

·         Blog/ website o   Could make new pages/ my own website o   Could chose the colours used o   Font o   wide range of templates o   links o   organise and present work in a really creative way that was appealing to look at. o   could easily change the font – its size and colour o   professional ·         BUT o   complicated - create pages + link these pages together o   crashed Slideshare ·         Not creative – used so Flickr Facebook questionnaires Film and upload to YouTube (audience questionnaires and feedback) Vlogs Xtranormal Prezi Glogster Flickr Post it not animation Facebook questionnaires Film and upload to YouTube (audience questionnaires and feedback) Vlogs Xtranormal Prezi Glogster

Slideshare ·         Not creative – used so Flickr Facebook questionnaires Film and upload to YouTube (audience questionnaires and feedback) Vlogs Xtranormal Prezi Glogster Flickr Post it not animation Facebook questionnaires Film and upload to YouTube (audience questionnaires and feedback) Vlogs Xtranormal Prezi Glogster Photoshop InDesign Windows Movie Maker Windows Gallery Editor

What ideas did you communicate and what stylistic techniques did you use? How did it relate to your interests/vision of identity?

AS

A2

·         Mainstream magazine o   Bright colours – attract attention – unisex colour scheme – won’t single out one particular gender – also quite youthful – meets may target audience o   Male gaze – constantly looking at the camera. High angle shot – inferior to some extent o   Pull quote – direct from the artists – can tell that the main article is on her + name tells the audience who she is o   Use of popular musicians – The Vaccines, Emile Sande, Coldplay etc – dated to this time last year as well – mainstream – keeps up with popular music o   Bold text – capitals – draw in attention – popular atm – follows mainstream theme - everything was BEBAS, neou thin or Arial – not to be confusing + realistic ·         Front cover o   Slanted text – like NME – another mainstream magazine o   Flash – interest the reader in other aspects of the magazine – one time parts o   Lists of popular musicians at the bottom – interest the reader – make them read more – fills up space – differentiation in colour makes it more eye-catching and follows colour scheme without being ott o   Artist names on the side with the teasers alternating between black and white – eye-catching and thus more appealing to their audience.. blue and red = people featured in the magazine = doesn't confuse the reader and thus makes the magazine seem good because it has so many celeb's in it – differentiation could be confusing o   Model in the middle with surrounding text – main focus of attention – magazine is clearly about her ·         Contents page o   Simpler colour scheme – not as complicated as front cover – not its purpose – still bright for continuity + target audience o   Had page number – article title then underneath teaser o   Headings – make it more organised – white font on blue box o   Two columns – easy to read ·         Double page spread 1 o   Simple – introduction page o   Only had article title and then plug – draw the reader in o   Close-up shot of the artists on the floor – male gaze o   Artist looking directly at the camera – directly addressing them – audience can feel more involved o   Guitar prop – suitable for a music magazine – tells us about the artist – plays acoustic guitar ·         Double Page Spread 2 o   Use of different images in different positions – different personality? – image on the left conveys a wild side similar to the first double page spread – continuity o   Tells us something about the audience as well – wild, young and rebellious o   Pull quote – shows the audience that she’s modest – more likeable o   Text follows outline of the image – media convention o   Black banner at the bottom of the page with her name and page number – media convention ·         Double Page Spread 3 o   Smiling – fun person – reflects audience/ readers as well – they want to have fun etc o   #your questions – youthful identity – use modern technology – constantly wanting to stay up to date etc

Music video ·         Fast forward and backward – fast paced like the song ·         Slo- mo – couple running + artist running down the leafy alley at the beginning – slower tempo – happy + dreamlike – we found love in a hopeless place ·         Jump cuts – follow the upbeat tempo of the song ·         Black and white dance scene – contrast between the lightness of the other scene in the video – she’s away from him – connotes sadness ·         Close-up shots of the artists singing – emphasis that she is the star ·         Close up shots of the couple – show that they are in love ·         End shot – close-up on the couple about to kiss and then the camera goes up – light – happy – follows song lyrics ·         Fastforwards and backwards in the limo – them getting in and out + champagne glass ·         Fast cuts between this and the lights – fast tempo – fun – reflects target audience – go out and have fun Digipack ·         Pop art style – similar to the song ·         Confetti coming out of her mouth – outspoken ·         Bright colour scheme – pink, purple, red – love + artists favourite colour ·         All pictures of her – gives her a big presence like Beyonce ·         List of songs, legal info and producers – makes it look authentic Magazine  Advert 1 ·         Black + white and sepia – emphasise her mouth – outspoken ·         Grid like style similar to tiles on digipack ·         Outspoken is white like on the digipack – continuity – also most dominant – people can easily recognise it ·         Not too cluttered – one image and some text – simple + eye-catching Magazine  Advert 2 ·         Same image used on digipack but in pink instead ·         Pink album title – follow theme + looked better than white – font itself is very R’n’B – wanted to convey this – makes the artists look like she has attitude as well Merchandise ·         Tops have album/ magazine advert images on them – promotes the album o   Also have one with pink background and white writing saying outspoken – weares can chose to wear this if they also feel like they are outspoken ·         Badges “I am outspoken” – fans can relate by labelling themselves as outspoken

Was your product influenced by your social environment?

AS

A2

The artists and some of the headlines/ stories used were ·         Summer o   Festivals – Reading - Foo o   Olympics ·         Contemporary artists o   Gotye o   Emeli Sande o   The Vaccines I also mentioned some of the artists I liked ·         Biffy Clyro ·         Foo Fighters “free music download – I personally like getting/ trying free music – makes me interested in a new artist/ band – encourages me to buy their album

Song = popular Like the genre of music As a group not all of it was my personal interest though What youths like – snap backs – crop tops – leggings – Hollister – shorts and tights

Was this original or did you add something extra to an original media text?

AS

A2

Original – but based on conventions ·         Erratic colour scheme ·         I was heavily influenced by NME as I wanted it to have a bold impact but still come across as girly. Blender was girly + a bit boring o   Tilted article title o   Similar blue o   Not as many flashes o   More red than white ·         Contents o   Doesn’t look specifically like any of the contents pages I’ve used but I was influenced – Q’s headings o   Arranged into columns like Spin and Vibe ·         Double page spread o   1st page – image covers both pages like the unnamed one o   But having two images on one page was my idea o   3rd page – her on the right like NME

Original - but based on conventions ·         Video o   bright lights – limo and fairground – happiness + youth – also in pop videos o   Couple in love o   Dance scene – in R’nB videos ·         Magazine Adverts o   Bright colours – pop o   Male gaze o   Close-up shot – emphasises her as an artist o   Font – graffiti – used in R’n’B ·         Digipack o   Bright colours o   Own idea to have leaves spilling from her mouth

Would you take any creative skills into future projects or have you been influenced to engage these skills in any other projects?

AS	A2
Would use InDesign more and Photoshop if I could, but I only use it in Media so I can’t	Again I only use the software in media, however I do take art and am interested in art in general so I do use creative skills. However, i have found myself using photoshop more – especially editing photos.

Question 1 A revision - Digital Technology-hardware, software and online

Question 1 A revision

Digital Technology-hardware, software and online

Pros + cons

How our skills developed

¡  Consider how you have presented your work; have you used blogs?

AS

A2

For AS I used the website Wix which allows you to create your own website. I liked the format because it didn’t look like a normal blog – it looked like a professional website. You have a wide range of templates to use for your own website depending on your needs and I decided to use a portfolio template as I felt that it would display my work well. The website has a main page where you’re introduced to its purpose and then the viewer can toggle between my preliminary task and main task brief; on these separate pages there are links so the viewer can see each stage of my progress. I felt that using Wix allowed me to organise and present my work in a really creative way that was appealing to look at.

For A2 my group decided to use Blogger instead of Wix or Weebly due to the sheer amount of work that was needed and we felt that we couldn’t organise it in a way that was neat and presentable with Wix. Blogger is like a typical blog: you can create posts that are displayed in chronological order and the viewer just needs to scroll down to see previous posts. They also have the option of choosing what post to look at on the menu on the left hand side. It’s not as creative as Wix but it was more practical.

¡  How has the internet supported your skills development?

AS

A2

Using the internet has supported my skills development because I’ve been able to look up any problems that I’ve had with the website I used to present my work, along with any problems I had with photoshop or Adobe premier pro on YouTube or on Google. Also, using the internet for my blog has supported my skills development as the more I used it, the better I got.

Using the internet has supported my skills development because I’ve been able to look up any problems that I’ve had with the website I used to present my work, along with any problems I had with Photoshop, Adobe premier pro or Logic Pro on YouTube or on Google. Also, using the internet for my blog has supported my skills development as the more I used it, the better I got – especially at sorting out any little problems. I also learnt from AS and developed my skills that I learnt further.

¡  Consider the pro’s and con’s of the digital technology you have used

Digital technology	AS	A2
Blogs/websites	The website/ blog I used for AS was a lot more complicated than the one I used for A2 because it involved me partially constructing and building it from a template offered by the website; I had to create pages and then link these pages together so it was easy for the viewer to navigate through. Also, the website kept on crashing so I could lose a lot of my work. I could easily change the font – its size and colour. The website also looked very professional and nice which I really liked.	We used Blogger for our entire coursework as it was where we embedded and uploaded our tasks from our research to our planning. We could have used other blogs like weebly or wix, but due to the sheer amount of work that was needed from us we felt that using Wix, despite its uses, would be really hard and confusing to use for AS, so in a sense we went ‘backward’ as we went for a simplistic website/blog instead of a more creative one like Blogger as we could personalise and present our Blog creatively, personally and easily while also producing a good standard of work. for A2 It was easier to use than Wix and it didn’t crash unless we were on a bad computer or had bad internet connection so we didn’t lose our work like we did with Wix. We were still able to be fairly creative: we could change the background; adjust the width of the posts and chose the size, colour and type of font we wanted to use for the posts, the website name and headings. However, we couldn’t drag and drop pictures, text or videos on the page like we could for Wix and produced a simplistic blog. It was still easy to navigate and read through but it wasn’t as creative as Wix where you could arrange photos into an animation that would move when you scrolled your mouse over it. Also, if we didn’t upload or complete the tasks in chronological order then we had to constantly adjust the posts date so it would appear in chronological order. It also allowed us to regularly post about our research & planning, progress and we used it to display our final piece.
Slideshare	I used slideshare to annotate my screen shots of how I made my product. I could easily upload my PowerPoint from my computer onto the website and then onto my blog. One disadvantage of using slideshare was that it had a certain limit to what it would upload so I had to split some of my presentations in half which was time consuming and I didn’t think that it looked nice on the website.	Due to the previous problem I had with slideshare, we used Google Docs to upload the slideshows of how we produced our final products. We chose this because it was quick and easy to use and, unlike Prezi, didn’t cause our computers to go as slow and we didn’t have to cut our presentations in half. However, it isn’t that creative, but we didn’t use them to be creative – we used them as a way of displaying our journey to our final product. Alsdo, the viewer has to click on a link, rather than have it embedded onto the blog so they could miss it when they look through our blog. It hasn’t aided to the construction of our main task either because it was used post production, but it has aided us to create a PowerPoint that can easily be viewed online.
Flickr	I didn’t use Flickr	I didn’t use Flickr
Facebook questionnaires	I didn’t use Facebook to answer surveys; instead I sent emails with links attached to what I wanted my target audience to chose and the questionnaire I used for my target audience. There were some limitations with this as only a certain number of people could answer and people may just ignore the email all together so I couldn’t get a good result. However, I did also post the link onto Twitter which did attract more attention, but still not much.  Using online surveys along with emails and social networking sites like Twitter helped me to create my product as it allowed me to reach a wider range of people in my target audience, which was extremely beneficial as that was who I made my magazine and if they didn’t like something then it wouldn’t sell in the real world.	Twitter - We used Twitter in both our audience research and then again for our planning; we used it to get people to answer the survey and then we used it to ask RocNation if we could use ‘We Found Love’ so it’s been very beneficial. It was also really easy to use and communicate with others. However, due to the 180 character limit we had to sometimes cut the tweet in half and send out two. Additionally, it isn’t very creative, but we were able to get quicker results by using it so the benefits outweigh the costs. Facebook - We used Facebook in a similar way to Twitter as we used it to gain our target audience feedback on our final product. It was extremely beneficial in this sense as we got feedback really quickly.  Fluid Surveys -We used FluidSurveys for our audience research as it is a quick and easy way of targeting our audience as teenagers are used to using the internet, therefore it was more likely that they would answer an online survey than one on paper. One advantage of FluidSurveys was that you could change the type of question easily, which would impact the result as some questions had only one choice while others were multiple choice. You could also easily change the order of the questions by simply dragging and dropping them into whichever order you wanted. Unfortunately, the website isn’t creative, but we didn’t want to use it for creative purposes.
Film and upload to YouTube (audience questionnaires and feedback)	I didn’t use film/ YouTube for my audience questionnaires and feedback in my AS. I think that it would have been a good idea to; however, as it would clearly show the viewer of my website who my specific target audience were, thus meaning that I could cater it more specifically to them.	We used a film for our audience feedback on our questionnaire on what should be in a music video. It was really useful as we actively chose people that fit into our target audience (not some random people who could easily take on online survey) and found out exactly what they wanted. It was also more creative than the survey and the other methods of gaining audience feedback from AS because we could edit, we had a range of locations, a range of shots etc that looked more visually appealing and thus understandable. It really aided our construction of our task as we could fully understand what our target audience wanted, along with experimenting with lighting, camera angles and editing which we could use towards our music video.
Vlogs	I used a vlog for my fourth question “What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?” where I held up images of the software’s that I used to the camera and then I spoke about it. The video was very monotonous as there was only one camera angle, no editing and it only focused on me. My second video was a bit more interesting as I actually held the camera and moved it from my face when I was speaking and then to the screen to give some examples, however, once again there was no editing.  An advantage of using vlogs was that the viewer didn’t have to look at an essay that wasn’t creative; instead they could see who had made the product, thus making it more personal. However, it was more time consuming than one would expect – the video may take 10-20 minutes but then i had to edit it and layer music into the background. I then had to wait for it to save to my computer and then wait for it to upload onto YouTube. If the video was too long I would only find out after a long period of waiting so I would have to cut the video down. The video didn’t aid to the construction of my task as I did it after I finished my product and I had to produce a magazine front cover, contents page and article, not a video.	We used vlogs for part of our analysis of digipacks, costumes and audience opinion on music videos. The video on our audience was a lot more creative than the videos I did for my AS blog and the videos I did for our analysis as we really paid attention to how we would cut and edit it to make it more interesting. It also still conveyed the information we needed. I was hard to construct the vlogs on the digipacks and costumes creatively due to the amount of detail that we needed, so the end result was a bit monotonous and similar to the vlogs I did for my AS, which suggests that I didn’t fully develop my skills in this aspect. Also, if the video was too long I would only find out after a long period of waiting so I would have to cut the video down (or sometimes into two separate videos) and then re- upload it. Overall I think it aided to the construction of our main task as these were ‘test runs’ where would could experiment with cuts and music which would be useful for our own video.
Xtranormal	I only used Xtranormal for my sixth evaluation question. I chose it because I could create a little The Apprentice style drama and I had a wide range of characters and scenes to choose from. I liked it because I could change the voices of the characters. I chose to have a British man and woman to follow The Apprentice them. Unfortunately my character choice was limited due to the amount of points I had, thus restricting my creativity slightly. However, despite this I did still like the choice of scenarios and I really liked the sketch/ doodle like characters for my video as I thought that it was a really nice concept because it reminded me of doodles that you would create when you’re bored in class, which is something everyone can relate to. One disadvantage was the voices – they were very still and computer-like. There were also unnecessary pauses which I couldn’t prevent, even when I tried to change the commas in the text etc. Although, it didn’t take too long to do and I didn’t have to download any software as it was on the internet. It didn’t aid to the construction of my music magazine as I did it after I finished, but it was a useful and creative way of presenting my evaluation.	We didn’t use Xtranormal that much for our coursework; we only used it for our question about how we were going to apply theory. We chose it for this reason as you can easily type up what you want to say and then your chosen characters will act it out. You can also chose the camera angles, scenes, the types of characters, their voices and background music, which was very useful as it allowed us to be extremely creative. It was also extremely easy to use; we could easily drag and drop what camera angles we wanted into the text boxes, along with easily being able to change their facial expressions. I think that it was useful in conveying the information that we needed for that particular question creatively and in an interesting way. I also think that it looks a lot more interesting than the one I did for AS due to the different characters, setting and music and I think that it shows my development because of this. However, like the one I did for AS there were unnecessary pauses and awkward camera angles that I couldn’t change, despite being used to the software, which was disappointing. I think that it was useful in constructing our main task as we could experiment with camera angles and sound etc, however it was an animation and our video wasn’t, so there was only so far that this experimentation could help. Xtranormal is a website where you can create your own cartoon video by typing in what you want to say and then the characters will say it. We've used t his in most areas of our coursework; for our evaluation of audience research which we made creative as we set it as a talk show where the presenter asked the star about the results.We used it again for our planning of genre conventions and we used a similar interview format but this time it reflected the R'n'B genre as we used stereotypical 'gangsta' characters in an alleyway. We thought that it was good at conveying our research creatively as we could simply copy and paste what we wrote in word into the speech boxes an luckily it didn't have a character limit so we didn't have to compromise on the quality of our work. There was also a wide range of characters and scenes to choose from, however, if we wanted some scenes we would have had to pay for them, but as there lots that were free we felt that we didn't have to use these. However, one disadvantage of using it was if we wanted to preview the video it would take up to 10 minutes sometimes to play . Also, due to the fact that the software used automated voices the words would sometimes come out wrong so we would have to change the spelling. Nonetheless, it was easy to export and embed onto our blog and we didn't have you use YouTube to do it so it saved time .Overall it hasn't had a massive impact on our work as we've only used it a couple of times , but this was because most of the other tasks involved pictures as well and we couldn't put these into the video but despite this we did really like it and we would have used it more as it allowed us to be extremely creative as we could chose the camera angles, facial expressions of the characters and background music and in someways helped us prepare with the editing of our own video as we learnt how important each angle was.
Prezi	I used Prezi for my evaluation question “Who would the audience be for your product?” and comparing my preliminary product to my main. It was complicated to use at first and depending on the computer it could crash without saving my work, however I was really pleased with the end result – I could zoom in and out of certain pictures/ words and focus on different elements and present my work really creatively. I could change the colours of the presentation; I could change the path (how it ran). It also didn’t take too long to produce, unlike the other websites and software’s I used for my evaluation.	We've used Prezi a lot throughout our coursework, such as our research, planning and evaluation as it's a creative way of conveying information easily because we just needed to write the tasks in Microsoft Powerpoint and then import the finished Powerpoint onto Prezi. We really liked using it because of this and secondly because it had a wide range of templates so our Prezi's could look different in terms of background as well as style. Unofrtunately, sometimes it wouldn't upload our Powerpoint presentations so we would have to copy and paste each slide onto Prezi which was very time consuming. Also, we had to make a couple of accounts as you can only have a certain number of presentations and we didn't want to delete previous work, so making a new account was the only option. Overall, Prezi has had a massive impact on our coursework as we have used it a lot simply because it is so s imple and effective and it has allowed us to be a lot more creative as there are different types of Prezi's, where some are 3D and others are 2D and you can choose different backgrounds, fonts and colour schemes. The fact that we used it a lot as well demonstrates how my skills developed and I also learnt new things like how to include YouTube videos.
Post it note film/stop frame animations	Didn’t use	We created a post it note film for our storyboard and it was really useful in displaying our thoughts and ideas for our music video. It was really easy to produce as we just had to draw out our shots and then take photos of the paper and then cut and edit the images in the order that we wanted and it looked different to other storyboards that were simple drawings, which I liked. One disadvantage was that it was time consuming to edit and then to upload onto YouTube, but as we only had to do it once we didn’t mind. It aided the construction of our product as we could clearly see what we wanted in our video and we could chop and change things easily if we didn’t like something. I think the fact that I used a post-it note film in my A2 coursework shows how my skills have developed from AS, as I hadn’t done it much before but as I learnt how to edit videos through audience research and digipack analysis I applied what I learnt to the video.
Glogster	I used Glogster for my fifth question “how did you attract/ address your audience?” Like Prezi it presented my work well and in a really nice way; I could chose the background, fonts, what images I wanted and even videos if I wished. It was also really easy to use and navigate around due to the tabs on the website and you could easily drag and drop text boxes or images to wherever you wanted them on the page. A disadvantage was that it could go quite slow sometimes due to internet connection so it was hard to use then. Also, if you clicked on the image on the website it would take a while for the glog to load – especially with bad internet connection.	Glogster in an online scrapbook which we used for our research of digipacks, magazine adverts, record labels and our moodboard for planning. It allowed us to be creative as we could put a mixture of text and images on one format where we had lots of resources and backgrounds so it would be visually appealing. Another advantage of using Glogster was that it was easy to use due to the obvious tabs and labels on the website. As we were really happy with it we couldn't really find any disadvantages apart from when we uploaded a number of them onto one post as it appeared white, but when you previewed it the glog would show up, so this must have been a computer malfunction. Overall, using Glogster has impacted our work as it's a platform where we could display the high quality of work needed while also being interesting and creative, which is why we've used it a lot. I felt like our skills developed a lot from AS as we used Glogster a lot more as we gained confidence in the software and as our skills developed. It didn’t really help us in the production of our task as we had to make a video, however it was a useful and creative way of displaying our research, planning and evaluation, which was easy to refer back to when needed.

Hardware

Digital stills cameras	Fujifilm bridge camera I used my camera to take photos of my costume choices and for the images in my magazine. I really liked the end effect – especially after editing and I was surprised at the quality as it was only a bridge camera. I didn’t really experiment with lighting or camera angles – I just pointed and captured what my model did, while making sure that it followed magazine conventions. I also only did the one shoot, which could have been risky – especially if the images came out badly. The advantages of using my own camera was that I was used to the functions so I could easily take a picture that I was happy with	Nikon D80 We used our college’s camera to take the pictures for our advert and digipack. One of the advantages of using the camera was that we got high quality pictures that we were really happy with, thus allowing us to be creative with our final product as we had enough photos to choose from. It was also really easy to use so we didn’t waste time either. There weren’t any disadvantages to using the camera as we were really happy with them, however if we weren’t we would have had to book using the camera for another time which could have taken up to a week. Overall, using the camera has impacted our work greatly as without it we wouldn’t have been able to produce our final outcome. I think my skills with a camera have developed as I really paid attention to small details like the lighting and how the model should pose, rather than like before where I didn’t think about it. By actively choosing what shots I wanted I felt that it greatly impacted our work and thus made it professional because of this.
Lighting	I didn’t really pay that much attention to lighting for my AS, however due to the quality of my camera I knew that I needed plenty of light so I made sure I chose light locations like the hallway and a lightly coloured wall with rather than outside in the dark as the flash from my camera would reflect off the light surfaces and improve the quality of the picture. For my second photo shoot I chose to have darker lighting conditions as I was taking photos in a bedroom and I wanted to give the photos a more personal and warmer feel, however, the flash on my camera didn’t convey this as much as I wanted it to.	I feel like we really paid attention to the lighting for the video as we really wanted it to reflect an R’n’B/ dance song video so we knew that neon lighting was important, but we also knew that the quality of the shots that we took wouldn’t be as good, so we made sure that we focused on the mini bar and the neon lights in the limo rather than just on people’s faces because of this. Also, when we shot scenes in front of the brick wall we made sure that we would do it on a sunny/ bright day to get the best quality possible. We also wanted to make sure that the alleyway wasn’t too cramp or dark because of this. For filming in the woods and the leafy alleyway, we felt that as long as it wasn’t evening we would still have good lighting due to the fact that we would be outside, but luckily it was a bright day which was really fitting for the theme of love in the video. I also really liked how the light reflected off of the lake as it gave that scene a magical feel. Finally, as we were filming inside a dance room for the dance scene we were able to have really good lighting due to the bright lights and the mirror. However due to the bad camera quality for our first dance shoot, the lighting wasn’t as good, thus reflecting the overall quality, so we changed another dance room which had much better lighting and this problem was resolved.
Mini DV cameras		Cannon Digital ixus 70 We used this camera for our filming as the quality was better than the college’s. However, when we uploaded the video onto YouTube the quality wasn’t as good as the preview on the Mac, but this could be because of the quality of internet. Another advantage of using the camera was that it was easy to use and then preview our work so we could easily re-film scenes if we needed to. It was also small and compact so we could easily transport it. Finally, it was easy to upload the footage onto the laptop. Overall, using the camera has impacted our work as we used it for our final product and it has allowed us to be creative because of this.
Tripods
PC	I only used an Acer laptop for my AS coursework and the college computers; both of which used windows 7 so I was confident with how to work them. I was also able to download a trial version of Photoshop and InDesign so I could easily do my production at home and in college which I think really impacted my work as I wasn’t limited to a certain amount of hours to work on my product. Also, using the computers – especially software like Photoshop and InDesign – allowed my computer skills to develop throughout AS so I was even more confident and sure of what I had to do. Due to the fact that I could use the software I needed both at home and in college really helped and was benefitial and I saw it as a big advantage. However, one disadvantage was that to use the font I wanted on the college computer I would have to  type up what I wanted into the text bar, save it as an image and then import it onto my product, which I found to be extremely time consuming and is why I chose to download a trial in the first place. Also, another problem was that once I opened up my product on the college computer the text would change or wouldn’t appear at all which was frustrating as it meant that I could only work on some aspects at home and others at college. Overall using computers aided the construction of my task as without it I wouldn’t have been able to construct it.	Macbook Pro We used Shara’s Macbook Pro to edit our video as it was easier to use than premier pro on the schools computer. Shara also used it to complete all of her designated tasks as it was her home laptop. Using it allowed her to be creative as she could easily access websites such as Prezi and Glogster for our coursework. However, sometimes due to the internet or computer malfunction it was harder to complete the tasks. Overall, using the laptop has impacted our work as it’s what we produced our final video on, thus allowing us to be more creative. Acer Laptop Similarly, Julie used her Acer laptop to complete the tasks at home which allowed her to access creative websites as well. Being able to use a laptop at home meant that she was able to more work rather than just at school and while we were editing the video and producing the digipack and analysis she was able to write up how we made each product as we went along, thus saving time as we didn’t leave it to last minute. Additionally, by using two laptops we could easily share the work load, thus significantly impacting our work as it would have taken us longer to produce otherwise Overall I think my computer skills have improved since AS as I couldn’t use a Macbook before, or its video making software. This is also going to be very beneficial for the future as I know that I will be able to cross between computers. Also, an advantage of using two different computers was that we could easily send each other our work, so we could constantly review and improve it if needs be. However, if one of us had a problem with our computers we couldn’t converse as much which severely impacted our work as we didn’t see what the other person was saying.
Mini DV tape

Adobe

Software	AS	A2
Adobe Photoshop.	The image manipulation program allowed me to manipulate graphics necessary for the magazine. E.g. crop tools such as Marquee (magic wand), Lassos – to select my model and the copy her into my magazine front cover as this is what magazines do. I also used the clone stamp tool to get rid of parts of the background that I didn’t need like the door and skirting boards. Using Photoshop was extremely useful in these aspects as I couldn’t achieve the same results with the windows editor. However I did find it extremely confusing and hard to use, but that was probably because I wasn’t used to it; the more I used the clone and marquee tool, the better I got though. Overall it was useful for the construction of my product as it allowed me to produce it to a standard that I was happy with, however aI think that I could have used it more.	When we edited the photos from our first photo shoot we used the magnetic select tool to select the mortar in the wall so we could colour it red. We also used the paint brush tool to colour the model’s lips in pink. For the second photo shoot we were a bit more experimental – we used the blemish tool to remove dark circles and blemishes and it was easier to use and had a greater result than the retouch tool on windows gallery as if you did it too much there would be random lines, however this was not the case for Photoshop. We also put a sepia filter on the image. We then used the paint brush tool, but instead of a conventional brush we had a leaf brush where we made it look like leaves were coming out from her lips. We also cut the picture into three parts and changed the layers colour to black and white.  This was a lot more experimental than what I did for AS as I was fully experimenting with the tools on photoshop and the more I did it, the less confusing it got. Overall I found Photoshop extremely useful as it allowed to be fully creative without any limits like the Windows Live Gallery Editor and it helped us to produce a variety of images. However, sometimes we couldn’t save the image as it was too big And it sometimes even crashed on our college computers. Also, because it was only on our college computers it meant that we were limited to doing it at college instead of a mixture of home and college. We used photoshop to edit our photos in the ancillary task and it allowed us to be really creative as we could adjust not only to quality of the picture but also add effects like the leaves and crop it into panels for our advert and dogipak. To do this we clicked on the brush tool and then clicked on the leaf option (below). We could easily change the colour by clicking on the swash/colour box each time we used the tool. so overall it's had a massive impact on our work as we wouldn't have been able to do any of our work creatively without it. However, it did have some disadvantages as sometimes it would freeze while opening and closing, causing us to loose time and sometimes our work if it crashed whilst saving. Also, because we were not familiar with it at first we couldn't understand why it wouldn't let us do things, like paint on features and other similar things, but as we used it more we learned how to use it properly as well as knowing how to do more things on it like airbrushing, thus allowing us to be more creative.
Adobe InDesign CS5.	The print construction software allowed you to create a realistic product through layout/font/logo/colour manipulation etc. I used a variety of tools, such as the square tool to create a flash. Along with the text tool to decide where I wanted my text and what I wanted to type. I could then change the colour and the size easily if I wished. I also added images and logos to make it look more authentic. One really useful tool was the pen tool that allowed me to create an outline over my images on my double page spread so the text wouldn’t go over my image and thus be unreadable. I found the tool really useful as it made my double page spread look authentic as it was something I saw in the magazines I researched. I really found my skills in InDesign developed as I experimented and watched tutorials on aspects I didn’t understand and taught myself.	InDesign was used to produce our magazine advert and digipak and thus allowed us to be really creative as we could easily change our font and colour, along with how our advert and digipak looked. For example, when we wanted spaces inbetween our words in the advert we clicked on the space too (bottom right) and we could easily increase or decrease the width between the space. As for changing the colour, all we had to do was highlight the font we wanted to change, go to colour and select the one we wanted. Unfortunaltely, there wasn't much selection, but we could easily make a new colour and use that instead. Overall the software had a big impact on our work as without it we wouldn't have been able to produce our final outcomes. At first it was hard to use as we hadn't used the software since our AS coursework, but as time grew we began to understand how to use it thus allowing us to be more creative. Another disadvantage was that it took a while to load on the computer and sometimes it would crash causing us to waste time.
Windows Live Photo Gallery	I used this to edit my photos as I felt more comfortable using it than Photoshop. I used a variety of tools: the retouch tool to get rid of dark circles and blemishes; red eye to get rid of red eye; I adjusted the exposure, contrast and colour as well to give the photos a bit of colour to make them look more professional and eye-catching	I used the same tools again for our first photo shoot but I didn’t get the desired effect. Apart from this one photo shoot I didn’t use Windows Live Photo Gallery Editor as I used Photoshop more; I think the fact that I used it less shows my development in skills in Photoshop because of this.
IMovie	Didn’t use	We were also able to change the colour of some of the shots, such as the brick wall ones where we increases the contrast so the colour was bolder and thus suitable for the genre. Overall we really liked using IMovie as it was simple and and effective; it didn't take a while for our work to save, which is what other students using PremierPro said had happened with them. It was also really easy to use - we could easily cut shots and even zoom in further to some shots if we wished, thus allowing us to be really creative and impacting our product as it make it look more professional and reflective of the genre.
Windows Movie Maker	I used movie maker to edit and produce the videos for my evaluation. I felt that my video for my first analysis question was really create and different to what I had done before as I had increased the speed as well as included images on the screen. However I felt that my other videos, such as the one “What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?” where I held up images of the software’s that I used to the camera and then I spoke about it. The video was very monotonous as there was only one camera angle, no editing and it only focused on me. My second video was a bit more interesting as I actually held the camera and moved it from my face when I was speaking and then to the screen to give some examples, however, once again there was no editing. It was also very time consuming – especially to save and upload onto YouTube. Using Windows mmovie Maker hasn’t aided my final production as I didn’t need to use it, however it was a creative way of conveying information.	When Julie had to make videos for the tasks, such as the digipack and costume videos she had to use Windows Movie Maker as it was part of the Acer Laptop. Using it allowed her to be creative as she could easily edit the videos and it didn’t take that long to complete.She could also put various transitional effects on, such as the cinema effect which she used for the costume videos and she could easily layer text over the video. However, saving the completed videos in the correct format took a while. Then uploading the video onto YouTube took a while as well as we could have been doing other tasks. Because of this it hasn’t greatly impacted our work, but using it has allowed us to be more creative. I also think that we have become more creative and the audience research video is an example of this
Logic Pro 9		is audio editing software which was used to edit and record our cover for the production task. We personally didn’t use it as we didn’t have the software or equipment, but luckily we knew someone who had previously recorded and edited bands before. The advantages of using the software were that it was quick and easy to change and edit aspects we didn’t like as well as placing different effects such as doubling up the voice for the chorus to make it sound more authentic. It also didn’t take that long to record either which was really good as we were able to spend more time filming. One potential disadvantage was that because we didn’t know how to use it we weren’t able to edit it to exactly how we wanted so we had to work and communicate well with the producer, but if we didn’t then the quality may not have been as good. Overall the software has impacted our work as we’ve used it in the final video and it has allowed our work to be more creative and personal because of this. I think that using Logoc Pro 9 has massively impacted our work because it made our work a lot more personal and thus cerative. Also we were able to experience what it was like to record an amature song.