'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.