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Explain how your skills in the creative use of real media
conventions developedover time. Refer to a range of examples from
your media productions in youranswer.
At AS I made a music magazine in the style of the mens magazine
Homme, the
contemporary mens fashion magazine Dapper Dan and two
alternative gentlemansquarterly magazines; Fantastic Man and Jocks
& Nerds. In A2 I made a music videowhich had an avant garde
styling and were aimed at the niche scenester target group.At the
beginning of AS I created a school magazine named IQ. As this was
aimed at avaried audience and not the previously mentioned
scenester more niche audience itneeded to follow conventions and
codes of a magazine. To follow these conventionscertain rules had
to be followed. Firstly I needed to include a masthead, as they
areapparent in every mainstream magazine. The masthead is the title
block for the magazine,usually this is the eye catching convention
on a page and has to be distinct. The mastheadis most commonly
large and covers the top left or to centre of a magazine,
examplesinclude the large Q of Q Magazine and the large initials of
NME in the top left of thepage. The most common colour of a
masthead is red and so I followed both of theseconventions and
placed a large, bold and red IQ font in the top left of my front
page.Another convention which I followed when creating my school
magazine was the inclusionof a headlines. This is the main
statement of the magazine. Usually the headline is thelargest and
boldest font, describing the main story. A banner headline spans
the full widthof the page. To follow this convention I decided to
use a large headline over the top of themain image in the same red
as the IQ masthead. I also decided to use the convention ofstrap
lines throughout my preliminary magazine as they are once again
included inmainstream magazines such as GQ and FHM. These strap
lines act as subheadings
which are placed below the initial headline to inform the
audience of the magazinescontents. I included strap lines such as
full cup final result and Mr Lane is up in theclouds with result.
The use of a kicker was another convention which I used on
mypreliminary after seeing them used on mainstream magazines. The
kicker is used to makea strap line stand out from the rest. I
placed my kicker down the right hand side of my frontpage with the
text stating free school timetable on black font inside of a red
circle.Throughout my preliminary task process I found the research
and placement of theseconventions time consuming due to the lack of
experience and knowledge. I felt that thisprocess was vital because
if I did not know what the conventions where and how to applythem
my product would not look professional.
Following the prelim exercise I found myself creating my final
magazine. As I was able tochoose the audience for this product I
decided I could be more creative within justificationof my target
audience. As mentioned earlier I attempted to recreate styles of
magazinessuch as Dapper Dan, Fantastic Man and Jocks & Nerds.
This style of music magazinewould be aimed at the scenester target
group. Clear progression was noticed immediatelywhen I began the
project this time around. I used the conventions I had learnt in my
prelimmagazine and added or deleted them in order to create an
alternatively styled productwhich still looked like a magazine. I
decided I would need to keep the masthead asultimately this is what
sells the magazine and stands out on the shelves. I did
howeverconvert the genre of coloured and bold mastheads like what
would be found onmainstream magazines such as FHM and GQ. Instead I
felt I could be more creative andused a black and white font which
appeared to look ink pressed and included a polka dotpattern which
spelt out my magazines name The Sonorist.
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Attempting to be more creative I took elements of each of my
influential magazines forexample the ink press style of Dapper Dan,
the interesting font style from Jocks andNerds, the central
placement from Fantastic Man and the minimal black typeface from
allthree. I felt that this design would only appeal to a small
audience however the individualsit does appeal to are the
individuals within my target group.Another convention that I did
not feel was necessary within my final magazine was the use
of a headline. I decided that the minimal style is popular
within the niche market I wasaiming my product towards. Again two
of my influential magazines (Dapper Dan and Jocks& Nerds)
include minimal if any text upon the covers. Instead of a headline
the only font Iplaced upon the cover was the Alternative - Music -
Tabloid statement above themasthead. This declaration does actually
follow conventions set by other alternative musicmagazines such as
Loud & Quiet, The Fly and Clash, who attempt to portray the
image ofthe magazine in a quirky and different way. As my magazine
is ultimately a musicmagazine placed in the alternative genre I
felt this minor convention should be followed.Again the use of
strap lines and kickers were not used within my final product.
Instead Iplaced the date and price upon each side,below my masthead
and left my black and whiteextreme close up (mug shot styled) image
alone in a black frame like rectangle inside ofwhite space. This
singular image and white space followed my minimal style which I
hadbeen following throughout. The extreme close up shot again met
the alternativeconventions set by my influential magazines. The
black frame around the image camefrom Jocks and Nerds magazines
whilst the extreme close up shot came from FantasticMan and the
black and white mug shot was a direct parallel to the style of
Dapper Dan swork. Although several mainstream conventions were
dropped allowing a more minimalstyle to be adopted I did ultimately
follow the newly formed convention of minimalism in thealternative
music market by following the style of vast white space around the
main bodyimage from the alternative music tabloid Loud and
Quiet.
Overall I found that my skills in the creative use of convention
analysis and developmentimproved hugely over time. I found myself
originally with no experience having to searchthe internet and
books giving me instruction and knowledge of basic
mainstreamconventions which would allow my product to look like an
actual magazine. I thengradually moved on to a more experienced
level which would allow me to venture out ofmy comfort zone and
become more creative, creating a product different to others.
Thelevel of knowledge I managed to reach allowed me to add and
delete conventions from myproduct at my choosing, whilst still
creating a professional looking product.
At the beginning of A2 I created a music video for a band named
The Kills. To produce a
video relevant to the genre of the video, once again I felt I
needed to use certainconventions. One convention I followed was the
use ofcamera shots within my production.Music videos tend to
include many long shots, close ups and mid shots. This is to
createemphasis on the artists, location and emotions. Also, close
ups are used not only to showemotions but to reflect the words of
the song with the movement of the lips of the artist. Ifollowed
this convention throughout my preliminary by using a range of shots
for examplethe close up on the lead singers foot in the first
scene, mid shit singing and long shot whenwalking. Another
convention I used when creating my preliminary was through its
editing.Jump cuts are the predominant editing technique used in
most music videos. This isbecause this allows a sudden change from
one scene to another. I learnt to use jump cutsthroughout to make
the video more fluent and easy for the audience to watch. At first
Iattempted to make all shots follow fluidly but I quickly found
that it made the video look likean unprofessional home video.
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My preliminary was a video which should be placed within the
alternative music genre andso I learnt that more specific
conventions needed to be followed in relation to this bywatching
and researching other videos within the genre. One of these more
specificconventions was that the artists are shown throughout the
video. I followed this conventionby having either the male lead or
female lead in each scene. Another specific convention isthat dark
locations are often used. To apply this convention within my
preliminary task I
used a dark room and only a few lighting elements. Although the
quality of preliminary taskwas not brilliant, by following the
conventions I felt that the video looked like a music videoshould
and so I took positives from this knowing that I had the basic
knowledge andapplication which could be applied in future
products.
Toward the end of A2 I set out to create my final music video
for a fictitious band namePCoK who were performing a track name
Hear it in the Cans. For this product I set out tomake something
more creative than my original preliminary task by following
enoughconventions to make the product look like a music video
whilst also challenging certainconventions to create a
different/alternative product. My final video was aimed at
thealternative/synth pop genre and so the style could vary and
stand out from theconventional alternative music styles.I decided
to follow the conventions in regard to camera shots by still using
a range of longshots, mid shots and close ups. My long shots
consisted of the whole three piece bandshowing there entire bodies,
my mid shots usually involved performance or vocal clips ofone or
two band members and my close ups would most commonly include vocal
clipsfrom an individual band member. The only conventional
rejection was the decision toinvolve a few extreme close ups of the
lead singers mouth when dictating the chorus.Another way I
disregarded conventions was through the location of the video.
Mostcommonly an alternative styled video would be placed within a
dark setting whereas I
decided to film my video within a white out studio with vast
amount of artificial lightingallowing me to create a minimal and
clean avant grade style. I also decided for my band towear all
black to capitalise on the minimal styling. This again defies
conventions of analternative music video.
Overall I found that my skills in the creative use of convention
knowledge and developedhugely over time. I found myself originally
with no experience having to research theinternet giving me
instruction of basic conventions which I needed to follow to create
ahigh quality and realistic music video. I then gradually moved on
to a more experiencedlevel which would allow me to venture out of
my comfort zone, be more creative and takeaway conventions which I
did not want to follow and use conventions which I felt were
necessary whilst also delving deeply into sub genres to find
more less well known sub-conventions. The level of my production
has increased, I moved from creating a ratherboring video to a more
creative and adventurous product.
