Collective Identity

Collective Identity: Case Studies on Prezi

Analyse a chosen product you've created against audience theories. - Hey miss this is what I wrote in 30 mins just for you to see that I struggled :(

For my A2 media coursework, we had to produce a music video. We chose a song by Carl Carlton called “She’s a Bad Mama Jama” which is an urban, hip hop, R&B genre. Our music video follows the same codes and conventions presented to us in any other typical R&B genre. We see typically our main artist Alex jones is seen gradually using his charm and charisma to woo over the girl of his dream. As the video continues we see elements of his passion for skating and singing shown in separate shot frames.

This is all effective as it begins to create a relationship with the audience. Each shot frame taken of our artist lip-synching to the camera, has a direct address with the audience, almost as if he is relating to them similar situations. Teenagers who are in similar situations conveyed in our music video will no doubt be familiar with the entire boyfriend and girlfriend storyline which is no doubt prevalent in teenagers.

Along with our music video came ancillary texts, which included a website and Digipack. Each text had to have the same brand recognition that we had now set in our music video, which was of course its colour scheme and style, why however was this needed?

There are five type of needs which are outlined to us in Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, these are:

• ·         Physiological needs
• ·         Safety needs
• ·         Social needs
• ·         Self esteem needs
• ·         Self actualization needs

Each needs when filled satisfies and creates a sense of belonging to the person, in our case our product needed to be able to understand that teenagers have to fulfil their self esteem needs when it comes to accepting any form of media as they need to have a sense of belonging to a collective identity which is a form of acceptance and recognition. Therefore when our products have brand recognition it is able to allow audience t recognize where exactly that is from and feel a sense of belonging to it. This is why fan groups are made; they are able to see constantly the brand recognition  set by the singer, company etc. hence accept that form of media as their need of belonging and collective identity. 

In relation to our product our music video has been able to convey its opinons clearly in order to create a significant relationship with the audience and then they can easily give an opinion about it whether they actually like or not or it can relate to them forming a collective identity on a whole.

Planning for section 1A and 1B

Section 1A

• Look at real media texts
• Key terminology
• Key examples 
• Genre Narratives 
• Mise -en-scne and its relations to the music video and film opening 
• special effects used in the film
• things that have influenced you to make what your making 
• What did you look at to make the 
• Did we conform or convert to the codes and conventions 
• Diggy Simmons
• Shot types, sound
• conforms to propps narrative theory
• Editing 
• Kidulthood to analyse representation
• Mainstream media 

Section 1B 

• Audience Gratification 
• Maslow's hierarchy theory 
• Hypodermic needle when the media inject the audience with their views so that their view becomes more important. Media is highly saturated 
• dominant ideology 
• Althusser's theory 

Umbrella Question

Umbrella Questions on Prezi

Explain how far understanding of the conventions of existing media influenced the way you created your own media products. Refer to a range of examples in your answer to show how this understanding developed over time.

In year 12 for my AS media production, I had to create an opening to an Urban Y2K movie within our chosen group. In my A2 production, I worked within a group again to create a funky, hip-hop genre music video, album cover and a website.  This was a great way for me to develop my skills further, as my year 12 production presented different codes and conventions in comparison to my A2 production. However for both years I found that analysing real media texts to help identify the codes and conventions I needed to make a good film opening in year 12 and music video for year 13.

Year 12 production, gave me the opportunity to use search engine Google and YouTube, to analyse pre-existing film openings and specifically their target audience. Using Google enabled me to find information on synopsis of urban Y2K film openings, YouTube was then used to find opening sequences of Y2K films and therefore analyse the synopsis related to the opening. A good example was Kidulthood, the synopsis was as follows “a day in the lives of four poor youths living in an impoverished neighbourhood in West London, where the pressure and desperation of poverty propels each of them towards the choice between a life of bleakness, violence, and crime, and the terrifying prospect of striving for a better life”. The opening which I viewed on YouTube, demonstrated this effectively, through the codes and codes and conventions presented, there was evidence from the Mise-en-scene of bleak, dark environments, urban flats etc. I found for Y2K opening were that they were quite bleak and convey a sense of moral panic, however followed Prop’s 31 narrative code and conventions. It involved stereotypical scenes with archetypal characters so audiences could easily identify the film.  

Therefore we endeavoured to use the same effects and incorporate the similar codes and conventions into our opening film, using similar bleak, dark effects to convey more urban environments. Through the scene of our main character coming out of his estate wearing a hoodie was due to the influence of films such as Shank, Fish tank and Adulthood.

For my year 13 production, I again used the internet search engine Google and then YouTube, to analyse pre-existing products. I used Google to research images of album covers and music artist website and YouTube to analyse music videos.  When watching music videos we were able to identify the codes and conventions needed for our product, which involved, fast edits, close ups to show emotion and lip synching.  Music videos such as Diggy Simmons ‘Do it Like You’  influenced the type of video that we were to create, to follow the codes and conventions set by the video, where we see a young hip atmosphere, where there a sense of happiness and love amplified throughout. Therefore with our music video we made sure to introduce the artist and his relationship with our main girl, using the similar effects that we had analysed in Diggy Simmons video, to create a retro, vintage look to the overall video.

The album cover we created was to match the music video we had initially created in order to create brand recognition between the ancillary text and the main product of course which was the video.  Through Photoshop, we were able to create an album cover that related to the codes and conventions; we identified when analysing real media texts. Looking at a series of album covers it was quite evident to see that pop and R&B covers focused on the actual artist being portrayed rather than their being a series of fonts or artistic symbols, the artist dominated the album cover. Adele’s 21 album cover is a great example of this, it has a unique selling point which sells the artist and represents to its audience what type of music we expect to hear, from the use of colours and edits.

Our album cover therefore followed this; we were able to primarily focus on having our artist dominating the album cover. Through the use of edits create a retro/vintage look in order to match our branding.

The website was quite different to research and analyse, the reason being is because we as group have never looked or knew the codes and conventions that were to be presented in an actual website. I used Google, to search for different artist website, to see how the website was designed and whether it had set its brand. Therefore when analysing Diggy Simmons website, I noticed how it had gallery option, information about the artist and contact detail.  The background was also themed to match all his existing product, creating brand recognition. Similarly we made our website based on the existing colours seen on our products, therefore we used the similar pictures seen on the album cover and used the same type font used on the album cover. Our website also included gallery, info and contact information.

In conclusion, from looking at other real media texts, we were able to create for both years effective products and ancillary texts which included a variety of codes and conventions that could be used to gain our target audience.

Looking at two types of Media, describe the ways in which a particular group of people are collectively represented or provided for, using specific examples to support your response.

Over the years it is evident that youths have constantly been the target for creating moral panic in society through the use of media products such as press and films.

Stuart Hall mentioned “Media appears to reflect reality whilst in fact they construct it”. The relationship between collective identity and media representation is not and will never be straightforward. The statement is indeed true because we see that in today’s society they tend to link youths with a moral panic especially since the London 2011 riots.  

Our opinions are highly saturated by the media and their representation of youths as a collective identity to be bad. Watching films such as Kidulthood, directed by Noel Clarke conveys the messages that youths as a collective identity are not governed are indeed lawless. Audiences may think that Noel Clarke representation of youths was indeed accurate, showing youths actually taking a delight in performing bad deeds, grinning whilst doing so. It is not hard then for people to link youths with moral panic. Stuart hall encoding/decoding states how the media gather information and represents it to their audience. Looking back at 2011 London riots the daily mail newspaper mentioned this of a group of youths “A sense of glee pervaded these accounts – youths were often grinning while describing their experience – a delight that the normal order of things was turned upside down.”

 It does not then come as a surprise that people would believe this to be an accurate portrayal of youths and therefore start to believe further any information regarding youths negatively. The press have a large impact on the views of youths, especially tabloids, where they encode their own message within the media text and the audience will then decode and deconstruct it in their own way according to their lifestyle.

This is linked to Althusser’s interpellation theory, the fact that it represents human subjects in this case youths are constructed by pre-given structures. This has been taken up by the media in a form of television, web 2.0, or tabloids/ broadsheets to impose their ideology on the audiences. Thus if we think about it, were bombarded by messages from the media, messages that make certain assumptions for us, and as soon as we engage with the message we are positioned as a ‘subject’ rather than an individual. The idea is that we are controlled y these messages and go some way to defining our or anyone’s identity. In this case tabloids newspapers often exaggerate to the furthest degree as they class youths as not being govern and carless, using words such as “brazen”, “thieves” and “yob” in their articles to impose their ideology on others that youths need to be controlled or avoided altogether.

By doing this it creates a collective identity and not as individuals. This can result in youths becoming angry and result in further chaos as they cannot control what is said in the press, some may respond back appropriately however others may respond back violently, as they may begin to label themselves lawless and violent and therefore act in that accord.

Through the use of Web 2.0 such as:

·         Facebook

·         Twitter

We have been able to see that youths have been able to use all this to form to that collective identity rather than an individual.

The guardian a broadsheet in fact represents youths differently from that of a tabloid sheet. The guardian mentioned “just imagine for a moment that you’re a British teenage boy. You’re struggling to grow up, to find out who you really are?” which is in fact true as youths today are trying to find their identity.

However because newspapers are generally given out to the majority of lower class/ middle class citizens, who read tabloids rather than broadsheets, youths in Britain are now classified with moral panic.

In conclusion, youths in the future will be labelled as bad and dangerous by the mass media, films such as Shank, adulthood, fish tank and the press will continue to contribute to this fact. Until, they are proven to be viewed as having an identity individually instead of collectively by the media, they will then continue to act the way they are.

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

In year 12, I created an urban Y2K film opening, called ‘Bleak’ for my AS production. For my A2 production, we came together as a group and created a music video, website and a Digi-pack. In order to begin both productions, I needed to research into pre-existing products that were similar to the product that we were to create and as example, where we could easily follow the codes and conventions and also see how we could target our audience effectively.

Therefore for my AS production, I used web 2.0 to research different types of film openings and looked into different type of target audience to determine what our actual product will be based upon. Taking into consideration the codes developed by Prop 31 conventions and Todorov narrative and equilibrium. We then decided on a specific target audience which was teenagers, prompting us to create a questionnaire on survey monkey to find out particular genre of film youths wanted to view and to then place it on web 2.0 sites such as facebook and twitter, knowing primarily that our target audience will be on those sites. Henceforth we took into consideration how we could use the results gathered to conform to the codes and conventions of a film opening targeted specifically at youths.  Using the site, survey monkey was quick and easy to use as it provided a template where I could easily design the questionnaire and afterward gather the results. Google was also used to carry out initial research. The search engine was used to investigate similar synopsis that fitted now our chosen genre which was to create an urban Y2K film opening, therefore we took into account films done by revolver, such as Kidulthood, Adulthood and Shank. YouTube was also used to investigate a series of film openings, which I could personally view and analyse the different angles used to create representations, the codes and conventions whether it subvert and conformed and also through the web 2.0 site review the comments made by youths on how they like the trailer. Hence our film opening conformed to a stereotypical Y2K opening, where a young teenager coming out of his council estate is seen; the weather is dull and gloomy and a climactic scene appears of someone being robbed. However we added an enigma at the end, this therefore allowed the opening to follow Roland Barthes enigma code. During the process of the production we decided to use a HD camera to film our film opening and use final cut pro to edit scenes and finally adobe after effects to create the graphics at the start.

For my A2 production, I created a music video and ancillary texts along with it. The internet again was a useful tool as it enables me to search into different type of music videos, artist websites and their promotional material including their Digi pack and to see how we can use the similar codes and conventions to create our product. This production required that we work as a group, hence my group and I made a decision on a specific genre after searching through a series of music videos through YouTube. We came to a final decision and chose to go create a music video based on a hip-hop/pop genre. Once again survey monkey was used to help decide what actually should our narrative of the video be constructed of, once the results was gathered, we decided what our cods and conventions would be. Skateboarding and young love together was to be portrayed in the video. Therefore I started to research music videos that showed these similar codes and conventions and conveyed different shot types of skateboarders and rollerblades.

Having looked other music videos and analysing the different shots types used and also camera angles we wanted to incorporate into our video, as we found there were quite few shots showing the singer’s face expression, interest and emotion in the song. There were a series of slow edits, fast cutaway shots all things needed for us to be able to create our product. Far East movement “Roceketeer” had demonstrated to us a series of shots, camera angles and edits that we really wanted to imitate in our product. In addition because we had to make a music video, I took it upon myself to research fan made videos of people lip-synching to the their favourite songs and then we ourselves would have a series of practice sessions where we as a group practiced our lip synching through the use of the apple IMac video recorder where we would essentially record ourselves lip synching a variety of songs, until one of us in the group had mastered it.

During the process of the production we used a HD Camera again, to create some really brilliant steady shots and close up of our main artist, however we also used a fish eye camera which allowed us to gain footage of the artist actually sees. Final cut pro was once again used to create edits for the music video, to add transitions effects, quick cutaway shots and to synch the actual song to the video. Adobe after effects was also used again, this time to create a retro and vintage look to the overall video, to make it look professional and resemble the same colour enhancement/correction  used for ‘Diggy Simmons – Do It Like You’ Video.

WIx.com was the programme used to create our website. The programme was quick and easy to use as it allowed us to effectively design personally how we wanted the website to be in order to tailor it to our specific target audience. Through the use of Wix we were also able to create brand recognition, s there was the consistency of colours for example our background colour was the same as the same as our artist clothes primarily his top. Wix also gave us the opportunity to automatically play our song once on the website this helps to further brand recognition. Our main goal was not to make the website to complicated as we wanted our audience to be able to navigate easily through the site.  

Photoshop was the software that I was able to best utilise my skills. The software was used to create and edit photos for the website but primarily to create the Digi pack. Having researched into a various artist Digi Pack and photos, I decided that Photoshop would be the best programme to create and edit the Digi pack. Through the use of layers, filter and simply adding colour and using tools such as the clone stamp tool which allowed to me remove any blemishes on our artist face aided in making an effective Digi-pack, allowing me to keep that brand recognition throughout.

 Of course there were many limitations that were faced when creating both productions, such accessibility to a computer or Apple Mac, or even the camera equipment, however I and my group were able to overcome those challenges.

Throughout the course, AS to A2, my skills in editing, researching, planning and organisation has developed immensely. The fact that before I knew nothing about editing or even about final cut pro, to now that I could easily create video, edit and even add affects on top of it through adobe after effects shows my development of skills in the use of digital technology for media production.