'How did the conventions of real media texts inspire you to use new technologies to create the style of product you achieved?'

Existing conventions were extremely important in the creation of my products, they offered a library of ideas that I could use, develop or challenge to create my product to a high quality whilst reaching out to the right audience. To do this I realised that to replicate or expand these original ideas I had to use certain technologies I hadn't before and therefore I was pushed to explore these new technologies to create the style of product I wanted. Albert Einstein quoted "The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources" which suggests that one of the main ingredients for creative products Is the influence of existing and previous texts.

In my advanced portfolio I created a performance music video and found with my original footage that it didn't convey enough movement and energy. Looking at performance video's by bands such as 'Arcane Roots', 'Green Day' and 'Arctic Monkeys' I could see that allot of camera zooming, panning and titling was used to create an increasing 'manic' style of video. To be able to emulate this one digital tool I needed to use during editing was the 'Ken Burns' tool on iMovie. With this I could manipulate the footage to pan sideways whilst moving to make the object (video) much more interesting. Looking at existing material again within my music video I took inspiration from 'Red House Glory's - 'You' in which slow motion was applied during the fastest part of the song. I wanted to use this technique in mine but having the slow motion at the end of the video after the fastest part, to elongate the ending and to increase the impact of the fast part. To do so I had to use FinalCutPro which allowed me to change the speed of my footage, selecting the fragment of video I needed to be slowed.

Look at existing material during my foundation portfolio included a large amount of analysis of music magazines. This consisted of Star image shots of the main artists within the article. I wanted to emulate a shot in one of Kerrang's 'Paramore" issues including Hayley Williams being the main artist. The magazine had her on a plain white background to make her stand out along with the colours being very pronounced. Also looking at NME's past magazines I found the convention of text repetition very compelling and aesthetically pleasing and I wanted to develop this onto my product with many band names placed around and slightly behind my main image. To re-create this crisp cut around the photo image and enhancement of colour I had to use software such as Photoshop and iPhoto. The magnetic-lasso tool on Photoshop allowed me to cut successfully around my main cover image which allowed me to have the convention of text repetition on my front cover along with the original background of the photo to be replaced with the background of the magazine. iPhoto allowed me to use the photo enhancement tool to enhance the colours of the image to make it much more clearer and allow it to stand out more from the background.

Looking at existing music magazines I found that the mode of address (being majority informal in the rock/indie genre) wasn't just applied in the literacy of the text but also the font and punctuation/grammar. For example in Q magazines issue on 'Two Door Cinema Club' the font was very bubbly and cartooned which isn't usually seen as suitable for an informational music magazine. To create this I used a relatively new website called 'Dafont' which allows for an array of new and unique fonts to be downloaded and placed on me own texts through Photoshop. Being able to re-create this in my magazines 'rock' style I could make my double page spread look much more related to the artist and audience.

Existing conventions have been essential for me finding influence to from my own media texts whilst also allowing me to develop my skills in new technologies to find the finished quality I was looking for. Programmes such as iMovie and Photoshop have allowed me to create the style of products I want and without existing conventions I wouldn't have been able to have the original idea's to develop for my personal use.

'Creativity is "A process needed for problem solving…not a special gift enjoyed by a few but a common ability possessed by most people." - Jones 1993'

Steve Jobs believed "Creativity is just connecting things, when you ask creative people how they did something, they feel a little guilty because they really didn't do it, they just saw something. It seemed obvious to them after while". I believe this relates similarly to Jones 1993 quote, as both agree to a structure in which involves a stumbling issue/problem which is then solved through (in media text) a new or existing convention sourced from the creator. However the main difference between the two are that Jones believed it was a 'common ability' whereas Jobs believed that only the people deemed 'creative' could connect the ideas together. 

In favour of Jones belief there could be a common denominator that concludes in a small number of 'elite' creative people even though the mass population have the ability to create the same. This could be narrowed down to the resources of the creator. Albert Einstein said "The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources" which suggests that sources are the main factor to be successful. In my foundation portfolio technology resources were extremely important for me to create my own music magazine (MM). Being able to have access to many media websites via the Internet I could research heavily into existing media texts, for example when researching NME magazines I found one article which used the convention of text repetition on the front cover taking up the background behind the main cover image. Other conventions such as Mastheads, cover lines and Star image picture placements  allowed me to develop these existing ideas to create something different, for example using the NME text repetition along with the front close up star image taken from Kerrang's issue on 'Hayley Williams' I could develop a hybrid front cover of previous successful material in the form of my own artist and story lines.

Resources such as blogger throughout both my foundation and advanced portfolio allowed me to track my progress online, giving me a digital scrapbook to look back at my own developments and reflect on draft versions of my music magazine, album digipak and album poster to find ways of improving and to find ways of having continuity across products where needs be. For example I needed to use a common factor through my three products in my advanced portfolio and when editing my final product (music video) I could look back at my digipak and poster and find conventions I could take through which in this case was the black and white colour scheme and scrawny handwriting font. Other technological resources such as iMovie and FinalCutPro allowed me to edit my Music video (at advanced level) to a high quality, whereas someone without the equipment and software would struggle to finish with the same result. 

I believe that creativity is a hybridised skill, joined with skills such as organisation and determination which may influence the final product. For example when creating my music video I needed to fully plan the amount of different shots to take, types of shots, actors of the band, media equipment such as camera rent and tripod and finally location and clothing. Without this planning my final product would not have been as successful and wouldn't have correctly used existing conventions of other media products. Also I found with my draft music video I made many mistakes with the organisation of equipment and time. Through determination I could fix these issues and limit mistakes on my final shooting to create the best product possible. Overall I agree with Jones quote that many people have the skill of creativity but different skills and opportunities within the creators environment challenge what text and quality of text can be created.

Postmodernism In Music

'Describe how your analysis of the conventions of real media texts conformed your own creative media practise. Refer to a existing range of examples in your answer to show how these skills developed over time'

I found existing conventions of real media products to be increasingly influential during the development of my products and skills. Researching these existing products allowed me to gain a creative interpretation of the different styles and ideas already used and therefore allowed me to develop them through my own. Albert Einstein quoted "The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources", this could suggest that not just media products but all products take ideas from different sources and use or develop them to create their own.

One of the main conventions I used within my foundation portfolio product 'Music Magazine' was the 'Mode of Address' to my audience. I used quite typical informal language e.g. 'The gig was mental!' which directly speaks to the reader as they relate to this kind of language with their friends and musicians. This was primarily on my contents and double page spread as this was where the reader is more noticeably reading and concentrating about the information they are being fed. This is something many magazines within the 'rock' genre do, it relates well to the audience and also similarly uses the language the artists use when interacting with their fans. To also gain the audiences attention I used layout conventions consistently used by existing magazine front covers e.g. on Kerrang, Q or NME. This was the Golden Spiral and 'Z' format, knowing how these work and are used on existing magazines I could layout my magazine in a similar way to engage the target markets attention on the model, masthead and cover lines.

Another convention I developed from existing products was the use of text repetition taken from NME's 'The best bands of 2010', this is were the band names were placed behind the front cover image, making the cover very busy and intriguing. Using this on my magazine I created a 'Bands of 2012' front cover, using the impact 'Font' to look bold and stand out to the audience. This idea of text repetition I took forward to my advanced portfolio, when creating my Digipak front cover and inside 'Thankyou's' sleeve, I used text repetition again but taking further influence from Paramore's 'Riot' which used the montage of text more excessively than the previous NME magazine. Along with this I developed the text font from the previous straight bold 'Impact' to a more scrawny handwriting font. This was because the two media products had slightly different needs to supplement their target audience. The digipak needed the font to be representative of the bands genre and relate to the audience whereas the magazine needed to the font to be bold and easy to read to gain the audiences attention. When moving on to do my Poster for the same band at my advanced portfolio I wanted to re-create the scrawny busy page environment. I started to do so using Photoshop but however when looking and researching into other band posters and album covers I came across Arctic Monkeys 'Suck It And See' which consisted of nothing apart from the album title in the middle and a small circular logo showing the band name in the corner. I developed this minimalism theme into my product, keeping the scrawny handwriting font but having only a few words on a plane white page, artist name and album along with a review in a vertical format.

When creating my music video at an advanced level it was critically important to analyse existing music video's of the same genre. Looking into Indie-rock bands like Oasis's 'Supersonic' and Arctic Monkeys 'R u mine?' I saw the convention of a black and white colour scheme. It was something really common within these bands other music video's and many others and therefore I decided to use this within mine to reach out to the same audience that have an interest in the filming and technological changes that can be achieved.

Real media conventions were essential in the development of my products, they helped me obtain advantages and disadvantages of excessing product conventions and through this allow me to select the appropriate ones to make my products a success to their apposed target audiences.

'Uncool' Playlist

1. Fluorescent Adolescent - Arctic Monkeys
2. Snakes - The James Cleaver Quintet
3. Power Boast Distaster - Baby Godzilla
4. Chasing The Girls - Dangerous!
5. All The Small Things - Blink 182
6. Hyper Music - Muse
7. Danz - Swiss Lips
8. Smells Like Teen Spirit - Arcane Roots
9. V.E.N.O.M. - Pulled Apart By Horses
10. I Can Talk - Two Door Cinema Club
11. Fire Up - Red House Glory
12. She - Green Day

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

Postmodern media has brought about large debate and argument within the media world with the support and criticism of the properties it brings to industries, for example in film or music. Post-modern media involves an array of different theory’s, which attempt to explain its effect on the audience and what the media text is trying to achieve. Intertextual References is one of these, Julia Kristeva’s theory could be mostly associated with the film ‘Inglorious Basterds’ Directed by Quinten Tarantino in which includes many references to other films which have been shaped to fit within the genre of his film (in this case war), without obvious recognition. Jameson criticises this and his overall opinion of poster-modernism is defined by ‘vascous and trapped in circular references’.

Inglorious Basterds uses the theme of spaghetti western font and music throughout but this seemingly fits with the drama even though taken from a different genre. Kirby Ferguson’s theory of “Everything is a remix” would support this type of film making as it attempts to copy then transform and combine existing material, however Jameson’s point and opinion becomes noted within media text like the film “Hobo With A Shotgun”. The film takes a comedic shape of references from 80’s films and does this so to be deliberately bad.  The screenplay and acting differ in quality compared to Inglorious Basterds yet both pieces select and re-use pieces of other films but differently as Inglorious Bastards references are presented subtly trying to be not as easily noticeable whereas Hobo’s are made the main (most important) feature. In conclusion Inglorious Basterds receiving success and high reviews.

The argument that Hobo with a Shotgun is suppose to be bad does hinder Jameson’s point, however the film Scott Pilgram Vs. The World directed by Edgar Wright suffered at the box office after one of its main features was the use of inter textual references. The film was aimed at teenagers and young adults but the majority of references were taken from the 80’s, including games, music videos and other films including music by ‘The Doors’ in which the audience weren’t familiar with and therefore found no preferred reading of the parody/imitation scenes within.

Some people are unconvinced of post-modernism because of its relationship with modern technologies, for example social networks sites like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. These along with games e.g. The Sims, allow people to live reality lives away from there own in a digital world, were they can create aspirations and do things virtually they can’t in there own. When achieving these aspirations they feel the same feelings as if they had done it for real, this links to Baudrillard’s theory of ‘Hyper Reality’ were there is an inability in the conscious to distinguish between reality and simulation. This idea of games maybe extreme but this is common within many media advertisements, for example in Nikon's S8000 camera advert, they portray a marriage, holiday to Egypt, nightclub party and more scenarios and the audience have feelings of happiness, joy etc. for the people within which they then relate to the product. These people are however actors, the scenes are staged and the audiences have never met, got to know (establish relationships) or interact with these people and yet feel emotions towards them, this conforms with the theory of people struggling to distinguish between reality and virtual/simulation.

The music industry has changed allot due to post-modern development. The increasing amount of patents and copyright infringements has duplicated in number in the new century. This is because it has become easier for the audience to analyse and research into the history of different media texts and therefore it has become much harder to hide the sources artists uses to create there music. Albert Einstein believed “To be creative, you must no how to hide your sources” alluding to how people use existing conventions. The argument with this are people like Kirby Ferguson who think things have always been copied and that originality is impossible think things won’t progress with legal things like this. However for the artist themselves they are of the majority of time very angry and annoyed when what they see as their own material is copied and they are not rewarded or credited. For example one of Green Days biggest hits ‘American Idiot’ revived their career and gave them global success, but it however came apparent to a small majority of audience that the songs main riff was almost exactly the same to the ‘Dillinger’s Four’ song ‘Doublewhiskeycokenoice’. This shows how songs have been transformed to be iconic to a new audience (of different time) whilst also having the context changed (linking to Levi Strauss Bricolage Theory). The argument is that what we believed to be original and at the time (song tabloids saying the song was just like old punk) was because it was original, but original no more.

The complexion of this shows again that the audiences are almost sold a lie and that post-modernism allows the un-creative to be creative with existing media. This may have a huge effect on future media texts, as anything the audience will see will never be new, it will always be a copy that is transformed or developed into different contexts and the original meaning and artist will be lost, and this is one main reason many or unconvinced of post-modern material.