Practice Essay

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

For my AS foundation portfolio I created a Chick Flick movie opening and for my A2 advanced portfolio I made a Indie Pop/Rock music video to the song Mouthwash by Kate Nash. As Bentley wrote, "creativity is the rearranging of the old" and the "making of the new", a principle I adhered to whilst making my two production pieces. 

When I began my AS course, I created a blog to record all my research into film openings and Chick Flicks which was my chosen genre. By using YouTube, I was able to analyse other successful film opening in order to gain ideas for my own. I was able to source information from websites and books and collate it all in one easily accessible place. I was able to make a collage of images typical of the genre to exemplify a use of colour; for example the overwhelming use of pink typically seen in Chick Flick movies, and mise en scene to inform my planning. I conducted several nine-shot analyses of well-known Chick Flicks such as "From Prada to Nada" (2011). Through analysing the type and combination of shots and mise en scene I was able to formulate ideas about how I could use the conventions such as the use of up-beat background music, locations and costumes, such as the fur coat our protagonist wears to create a professional looking product. 

At A2, I continued to blog as I needed to research the conventions of a completely new area of the media; music vides. I made use of SurveyMonkey to find out what my target audience thought of the key conventions of Indie Rock/Pop music videos and used the feedback from this to help me to act on their expectations by choosing a variety of different locations such as Italy, forests and roads. I received a lot of feedback that out video should involve original and quirky ideas and follow a storyline, which is why I made the decision to include a lot of stop motion and match the actions in the video to the lyrics of the song. The feedback I received from or survey resulted in me changing my initial ideas to make sure my finished product would appeal to my largest audience of Indie Rock/Pop music fans, who tend to range from teenagers to young adults. It was particularly interesting to find out about the other artists in my genre that my target audience were a fan of, as this informed me that my video would need to be different and innovative to appeal to a wide range of tastes. 

One area where I built on my skills from AS was that I used media theory to inform my research and planning. In particular, I applied Andrew Goodwin's theories on the conventions of music videos from his 1992 book 'Dancing in the Distraction Factory'. This enabled me to focus on key conventions such as they way the record label requires close ups on the artists and the inclusion of symbols and iconography in my work, such as (.....). 

Additionally at A2 I needed to research the conventions of two further media products, these being a magazine advertisement and a digipak for my album. Where I could do some research online it was more useful to go out and find the actual products to ensure that mine were truly reflective of the real thing. This ensured I included all the key conventions such as a barcode, record company logo and song list on my digipak. Furthermore, I noticed that synergy was usually created within a brand, using similar colours and fonts across all the products as well as photos from a shoot of my artist wearing the costumes in the video. 

By the time I moved into the production stage of both pieces, I had a clear idea of the conventions I needed to apply. Whilst filming I had my storyboard and shot list with me at all times to ensure that I was able to apply my analysis of the real media texts. This was particularly useful as AS when I was filming the car journey of my protagonist to school- I filmed from as many different angles as possible, with point of view shots from inside the car, panning shots following the car into the school driveway and close-ups of the car wheels as ell as my protagonists feet stepping out of the car in her sophisticated shoes- a shot I had noticed in many chicks flicks such as 'The Devil Wears Prada' (2006). One shot I filmed which I rejected in the end was a close-up from inside a locker as my protagonist got out her school files. It was a shot I had observed in several other films but after audience feedback, I decided it lacked verisimilitude because it is a view that would never be seen in real life. 

At A2 my skills further developed in the application of conventions. I had previously used green screening for a stop motion animation of my film credits at AS, when I repeated the process of stop motion in my music video I had a much better understanding of the number of tiny movements I needed to include and therefore my animation was much smoother and more professional looking in my music video. 

At the post-production stage of my film opening, I was able to refer back to my shot-by-sot analysis of other films to ensure I applied the key conventions appropriately. For example, for my green screening, I applied colours appropriate to a chick flick, eventually rejecting the traditional pink to opt for a baby blue colour for my animation that matched the car I used in the film. I made sure that at A2 I had plenty of shots from as may different angles as possible so that I was able to follow the conventions of a contemporary music video and cut very quickly between shots, achieving over 100 shots in my three minute sequence. 

In conclusion, Bentley's 'rearranging of the old, making of the new' was key to both my film opening and my music video; at A2, my in-depth analysis of a huge number of videos in the Indie Pop/Rock genre enabled me to create a really successful product which was confirmed by my positive audience feedback.