Tuesday 29 January 2013

AS Magazine

convention                                                 how used                                             creative?masthead                                                  Centered and at the top,                      Garage-ey font
 in black colour                                         give 'pop' feel and
          

  Image                                                        In centre of page                                 Uses standard
                                                                                                                                conventions


Writing at side                                            Interesting fonts                                   Standard conventions



Thursday 24 January 2013

Essay Question

Describe how you developed your skills in the use of digital technology for media production and evaluate how these skills contributed to your creative decision making. Refer to a range of examples in your answer to show how these skills developed over time.

 
My skills in digital technology has vastly improved throughout the course and I have used them to contribute to my creative decision making. For example, during the prelim activity of where I edited footage for a music video of The Kills, I had my first go at using iMovie, I was very unsure about the program at first but gradually got used to it. Then, when the task was set to film a music video, I knew i was confident with iMovie so chose to edit the footage from our video on that program, this allowed me to create a video that had fast cuts and a really professional feel to it. 
My skills in Photoshop have also developed thoroughly throughout my media course, I used the program for my AS magazine and for my A2 digipak and poster.
you can clearly see that my skills have developed as I was able to edit the contrast, saturation and brightness of my main photograph, whereas my AS magazine lacked this enhancement. I was also much more confident at typography as my font In my advances portfolio was very strong and stood out.
I also used publisher for my foundation portfolio to layout the pages and then take them to photoshop, this was not needed in my advanced portfolio digipak and poster as I was confident enough in photoshop to do it on that. This allowed more precise alignments and positioning.
This also in turn shapes my creative decision making as I was able to be far more creative in what I was doing, since photoshop is a far more detailed program I was able to do turn photos black and white, and adjust the contrast etc.
with the addition if the Apple Mac computers I was able to use iMovie whenever I wanted, this was a great help and led to decisions in my creative decision making. Most notably through m use I the program during y advanced portfolio music video. As it allowed to create an effective black and white effect that represented y heavy rock genre well, it also allowed for precise fast cuts which helped the energy and speed of the video, as well as different transitions like ken burns. Plus, having iMovie led me to use the program in one of my evaluation questions, as by now I was fully confident with this pretty new for me software, I actually chose to use it.
In conclusion I think that I have developed these technological skills a lot throughout the foundation and advanced portfolios, this evidence can easily be seen through the progression of my products over my a level, with the final A2 music video vein my favourite and in my opinion best piece of coursework I have created in media.

Thursday 17 January 2013

Exam Question

Creativity is "a process needed for problem solving... not a special gift enjoyed by a few but a common ability possed by most people". - James 1993

Essay for the 22nd of Jan

“Digital Technology turns media consumers into media producers”. In your own experience, how has your creativity developed using developed using digital technology to complete your coursework productions?
  • do you agree, disagree or both?
  • aim to cover 3 products
  • look at which hardware and software products allowed you to be creative
  • use DIKY triangle by Tim O'Reilly to show how you have used digital technology to become wise about the conventions needed
  • use a creativity quote to support your thoughts about how you were creativity
  • conclude with an answer to the question

Magazine

Photoshop



Music Video

iMovie


Do I agree? Yes. Technology has become so simple and accessable to people it allows anyone to create media products with ease. Also, this comes from people being influenced by current media products

    Monday 14 January 2013

    Creativity Questions

    What do you understand by ‘creativity’ and to what extent have you been creative?
     
    - How have you tried to facilitate and encourage your own creativity?
    I have tried to be creative throughout the course as I know that the best marks are given to the products that stand out and successfully meet the brief. So i have tried in some cases to break conventions of typical products but have also slightly stuck to them to ensure that my products have been successful.

    - Did you experience limits/blocks on your own creativity?
    I think that the only real limits and blocks for my creativity were the technology I used, as I was once not to familiar with photoshop so struggled to perform certain tasks I wanted.

    - How easy/difficult was it to be creative while still working to the brief?
    I found this pretty easy as I knew I had to stick to the briefs of my products to achieve the best marks i could, so my main focus was completing the task appropiately. But I still managed to add my own aspects of creativity into my products.

    - Did working within conventions stifle your creativity?
    I think that it did and didnt, as sticking to conventions allowed me to start off with a basic idea but then develop it using my own creativity, i think that using conventions actually helped me in the long run.

    - To what extent did you need to work with others and ‘bounce ideas’ off other people to be truly creative?
    Recieving advice and feedback was hard in terms of creativity, as often people dont always see things the same as you do, so in moderation feedback must be taken in to improve my products in general.

    How much of your creativity was about trying to picture things in your mind’s eye?

    - How much of your creativity was about trial and error?Creating layouts and image placement was mostly about trial and error e.g. seeing if something looks better in one place compared to another. This allowed me to actually see and compare different parts of my product and then decide on the one that works best.

    - To what extent was a lack of confidence an issue in terms of your creativity?
    I dont think there was a lack of confidence.

    - To what extent was a lack of technical competence/confidence an obstacle to your creativity?
    Like previously mentioned, my skills on certain programs (i.e Photoshop) werent/arent the best so it meant i couldnt do things that i wanted to do. Other than that this wasnt an issue.

    Creativity Task - Coffee Machine

     I think this task allowed me to show creativity but it also revealed that it will always branch off from the orignal in some way.

    Friday 11 January 2013

    1st Week of Post Modernism

    EVERYTHING IS A REPLICA OF AN ORIGINAL.

    OFTEN THE MEANING OF THE ORIGINAL IS LOST.

    [[[ Intertextuality]]]

    British Gas boiler repiar ---> Watchmen Vietnam ---> Apocalypse Now ---> Birth of a Nation ---> Wagner ---> Aryian Race.

    Reference this post:

    http://smithlcmedia.blogspot.co.uk/2009/10/intertextuality-birth-of-nation-and.html

    The same with the song 'Goldigga' by Kanye West.
    Copied from 'Good Woman' which was copied from 'It Must Be Jesus'.