- Title sequence - 8 bit - reminicent of Gary Numan
-hyper- reality
- police warning - takes the piss
- parody of anti-piracy ad.
- contrast of the inside/outside (smokers/non smokers)
- married couple - intertextuality
- characters - hyperreal
- soviet - Jen adopts a russian accent - freedom walk,contrasting as it's along an A-Road
- Meeting new people - marriage counseller
- stereotypical german/german food - hannibal lecter
- exaggerated laugher
- intertextual - police
- change of music in soviet scenes/ lighting
- Douglas ' theres somebody at the door ' - windmill kids -Rod Hill + Emu
- fine young cannibal
-Gorky Park
Monday 2 April 2012
Drive (2011) Notes
Character
- We know very little about ' the kid', we don't know what his motivation is
- Sparseness of dialogue is a feature
- 'Gangster' type characters ( Bernie, Neno etc) appear 'business like' in presentation, however classic 'gangster' elements still exist such as the location of the pizzarea
- Female character (Christina Hendricks) - wonder how she ended up in that situation - enigma, provokes lots of unanswered questions which is a theme throughout
- characters seem to be all surface and no depth - links to Bauldrillard
- Utopian aspect - link this to 'the kid' fitting in with the family
- 'The Kid' responsible for the deaths of Standard and Shannon - postmodern hero? he saves Irene and Bernicio. Is he heroic?
- 'The Kid' isn't a flawless hollywood conventional hero - he is a criminal. He is a getaway driver for bad people.
- 'The Kid ' shows very angry, psychopathic traits - hero?
- We don't learn much about him, he is quiet. Maybe because he is so insular, dark, violent and psychopathic? However these could be seen as masculine traits
- Is he real?
- Issues of maculinity
- We know very little about ' the kid', we don't know what his motivation is
- Sparseness of dialogue is a feature
- 'Gangster' type characters ( Bernie, Neno etc) appear 'business like' in presentation, however classic 'gangster' elements still exist such as the location of the pizzarea
- Female character (Christina Hendricks) - wonder how she ended up in that situation - enigma, provokes lots of unanswered questions which is a theme throughout
- characters seem to be all surface and no depth - links to Bauldrillard
- Utopian aspect - link this to 'the kid' fitting in with the family
- 'The Kid' responsible for the deaths of Standard and Shannon - postmodern hero? he saves Irene and Bernicio. Is he heroic?
- 'The Kid' isn't a flawless hollywood conventional hero - he is a criminal. He is a getaway driver for bad people.
- 'The Kid ' shows very angry, psychopathic traits - hero?
- We don't learn much about him, he is quiet. Maybe because he is so insular, dark, violent and psychopathic? However these could be seen as masculine traits
- Is he real?
- Issues of maculinity
- power
- lack of dialogue (lack of masculinity)
- Nino (seems irrelivent)
- traditional roles to provide, protect, to be a comfort are shown from ' The Kid ' towards Irene and Bernicio
Location
- L.A
- title font used - pink, 80's style - incurs thoughts of Miami/Vegas
- GTA Vice City
- Seemingly set in modern day
- birds eye view shots of the city
- see night shots
- urban sprawl
- reminicent of blade runner (1982) - Ridley Scott
- City being used as
1) as a playground (GTA)
2) bit like another character in the film (shallow and opressive) offers little comfort and no escape.
- L.A River, contrast, drainage. heart of the city - Idylic. Used in many other films - iconic filming location.
- L.A
- title font used - pink, 80's style - incurs thoughts of Miami/Vegas
- GTA Vice City
- Seemingly set in modern day
- birds eye view shots of the city
- see night shots
- urban sprawl
- reminicent of blade runner (1982) - Ridley Scott
- City being used as
1) as a playground (GTA)
2) bit like another character in the film (shallow and opressive) offers little comfort and no escape.
- L.A River, contrast, drainage. heart of the city - Idylic. Used in many other films - iconic filming location.
- The film has an utopian/idyllic heart, however the city and most of the characters are more dystopian
- City seems deserted
- City seems deserted
Music
- Very 1980's style/synthesiser
- Chromatics
- Kavinsky ft. Love Foxxx
- Desire
- Cliff Martinez (score)
- Very 1980's style/synthesiser
- Chromatics
- Kavinsky ft. Love Foxxx
- Desire
- Cliff Martinez (score)
- link to baseball game
- His jacket is retro which matches with the music throughout the film
- His jacket is retro which matches with the music throughout the film
The soundtrack to Drive includes an original score by Cliff Martinez that was inspired by ’80s-style, synth-pop. In addition to crafting his own compositions, Martinez built the film’s sonic landscape from ideas pioneered by European electronic bands, such as Kraftwerk. Other songs in the set — which were recorded and arranged with a similar retro edge – include “Nightcall” by Kavinsky and Lovefoxxx of Brazilian dance-rock outfit CSS, a tune by the Chromatics, and others.
01 Nightcall – Kavinsky & Lovefoxxx
02 Under Your Spell – Desire
03 A Real Hero – College feat. Electric Youth
04 Oh My Love – Riz Ortolani feat. Katyna Ranieri
05 Tick of the Clock – The Chromatics
06 Rubber Head
07 I Drive
08 He Had a Good Time
09 They Broke His Pelvis
10 Kick Your Teeth
11 Where’s The Deluxe Version?
12 See You in Four
13 After The Chase
14 Hammer
15 Wrong Floor
16 Skull Crushing
17 My Name on a Car
18 On The Beach
19 Bride of Deluxe
Tracks 6-19 by Cliff Martinez
01 Nightcall – Kavinsky & Lovefoxxx
02 Under Your Spell – Desire
03 A Real Hero – College feat. Electric Youth
04 Oh My Love – Riz Ortolani feat. Katyna Ranieri
05 Tick of the Clock – The Chromatics
06 Rubber Head
07 I Drive
08 He Had a Good Time
09 They Broke His Pelvis
10 Kick Your Teeth
11 Where’s The Deluxe Version?
12 See You in Four
13 After The Chase
14 Hammer
15 Wrong Floor
16 Skull Crushing
17 My Name on a Car
18 On The Beach
19 Bride of Deluxe
Tracks 6-19 by Cliff Martinez
Other Notes
- fairytale aspects such as the lighting/hue put over the scene in the L.A River - seems disjointed from the rest of the narrative.
- Counter intuitive casting
Ryan Gosling
Carey Mulligan
Albert Brooks
- Not particularly a sexy film considering the actors
- Human life is seemingly worthless
- Is the Kid real? Is the film real?
- Is the film an extended metaphor for 21st century existence (within that consider issues of masculinity and urban living)
- People are killed, no-one seems to care. Police seem irrelivant
- Way light changes in lift, slow-mo, contrapunctual music, self reflexive.
- First bit of emotion put into the film
- fairytale aspects such as the lighting/hue put over the scene in the L.A River - seems disjointed from the rest of the narrative.
- Counter intuitive casting
Ryan Gosling
Carey Mulligan
Albert Brooks
- Not particularly a sexy film considering the actors
- Human life is seemingly worthless
- Is the Kid real? Is the film real?
- Is the film an extended metaphor for 21st century existence (within that consider issues of masculinity and urban living)
- People are killed, no-one seems to care. Police seem irrelivant
- Way light changes in lift, slow-mo, contrapunctual music, self reflexive.
- First bit of emotion put into the film
Detail how your understanding of the importance of good research and planning skills developed throughout the pre-production of your AS and A2 coursework
For my AS coursework I used many different types of research and planning to give myself as much information as possible before creating my final product. By doing this it gave me as much depth and broadened my knowledge of creating a magazine cover, contents and double page spread. I used primary and secondary research in my research and planning. My Primary research consisted of creating a preliminary magazine, images that inspired me, mind maps, colour testing, animoto presentations and font sampling . This showed my technological skill in presenting my ideas and it made clear the steps of development in my ideas. I researched magazines that fitted the genre I was aiming to create - and those that didn't - so I could have a clear scope about what conventions were needed in my magazine and what weren't. I went out and bought magazines such as Billboard, Complex, NME, Q etc. to have first hand evidence of what conventions typically fell into each genre. After I chose to do the genre of 'pop/mainstream' I did gained feedback from my peers/teachers etc. to which ideas/names/fonts/colours they would most expect to see in a pop magazine; as having a strong interest in fashion and being an avid reader of Elle/Vogue I also got feedback on incorporating the 'fashion' element into my music magazine - as I was desperately trying to stay away from the 'smash hits' stereotype of 'pop' magazines.
For my secondary research I used other magazine covers as inspiration, album artwork, music artists websites, magazine websites, music channel websites, articles, magazine contents pages and double spreads. As I had a reasonably specific idea on how I wanted my final work to look I produced mock contents/covers/double page spreads and presented my ideas in a pitch to receive feed back and establish the ideas that I was producing. I elaborated my secondary research by analysing covers/contents/double page spreads from a variety of different genres; analysing their colour palettes and layout gave me a greater idea to the conventions of each genre, and allowed me to define the style I wanted to use.
With the knowledge of research and planning bought through from AS, I used the same 'style' so to speak towards my A2 coursework. As we worked in a pair myself and my partner decided to split the work in two, so we both knew exactly which items of research and planning we were doing and could therefore put more detail in to what we were doing. By being organised in this way it worked well as we could both focus more and combine our ideas. It also gave us as a pair more scope as we both have slightly different interests so it allowed us to broaden our knowledge and give us more ideas for our music video. For our primary research we created mind maps for our band name/album name, set up a twitter feed and did a lot of questionnaires in order to get a 'realistic' sounding band name. Using the internet made these tasks easier as there is infinite inspiration if you look in the right places. Secondary research we used was album covers, existing music videos, existing band names etc. We watched a lot of music videos from a variety of genres in order to gain as much depth as possible before storyboarding our music video. To present our ideas we used similar mediums as AS such as animoto, flickr, scribd, prezi and slideshare.
The second part to our A2 coursework was the ancillary task of creating our own digipack. As this was separate I used the same strategy to my AS coursework; by researching and analysing existing texts from different genres gave me an in depth idea to how to present my work, what images to take and how to lay my text out.
By comparing the skills used from AS to A2 I would say that it has allowed me to develop and strengthen my research and planning skills to a level that I felt I could express my skill accuratley without feeling that technology is restraining my trains of thought etc. Having a blog to organise all of my work proved very useful in both years as it allowed me to create a 'house style' that matched with my coursework. It also allowed me to easily gain audience feedback and edit my posts if they needed improving - this was especially useful when creating draft versions of my coursework as I could get as much feedback as possible before continuing. Also as there is no limit to how much you can post on blogger I found it useful as I felt as if there was no constraints - something which stresses me out when writing up posts.
By A2 I had realised the importance of good research and planning, and by doing this it gives you a platform to move on and create your music video/magazine/ancillary text. I also knew from AS that the more research and planning you do - the better, so ensured this was the case for our A2 coursework.
For my secondary research I used other magazine covers as inspiration, album artwork, music artists websites, magazine websites, music channel websites, articles, magazine contents pages and double spreads. As I had a reasonably specific idea on how I wanted my final work to look I produced mock contents/covers/double page spreads and presented my ideas in a pitch to receive feed back and establish the ideas that I was producing. I elaborated my secondary research by analysing covers/contents/double page spreads from a variety of different genres; analysing their colour palettes and layout gave me a greater idea to the conventions of each genre, and allowed me to define the style I wanted to use.
With the knowledge of research and planning bought through from AS, I used the same 'style' so to speak towards my A2 coursework. As we worked in a pair myself and my partner decided to split the work in two, so we both knew exactly which items of research and planning we were doing and could therefore put more detail in to what we were doing. By being organised in this way it worked well as we could both focus more and combine our ideas. It also gave us as a pair more scope as we both have slightly different interests so it allowed us to broaden our knowledge and give us more ideas for our music video. For our primary research we created mind maps for our band name/album name, set up a twitter feed and did a lot of questionnaires in order to get a 'realistic' sounding band name. Using the internet made these tasks easier as there is infinite inspiration if you look in the right places. Secondary research we used was album covers, existing music videos, existing band names etc. We watched a lot of music videos from a variety of genres in order to gain as much depth as possible before storyboarding our music video. To present our ideas we used similar mediums as AS such as animoto, flickr, scribd, prezi and slideshare.
The second part to our A2 coursework was the ancillary task of creating our own digipack. As this was separate I used the same strategy to my AS coursework; by researching and analysing existing texts from different genres gave me an in depth idea to how to present my work, what images to take and how to lay my text out.
By comparing the skills used from AS to A2 I would say that it has allowed me to develop and strengthen my research and planning skills to a level that I felt I could express my skill accuratley without feeling that technology is restraining my trains of thought etc. Having a blog to organise all of my work proved very useful in both years as it allowed me to create a 'house style' that matched with my coursework. It also allowed me to easily gain audience feedback and edit my posts if they needed improving - this was especially useful when creating draft versions of my coursework as I could get as much feedback as possible before continuing. Also as there is no limit to how much you can post on blogger I found it useful as I felt as if there was no constraints - something which stresses me out when writing up posts.
By A2 I had realised the importance of good research and planning, and by doing this it gives you a platform to move on and create your music video/magazine/ancillary text. I also knew from AS that the more research and planning you do - the better, so ensured this was the case for our A2 coursework.
Thursday 15 March 2012
Tuesday 13 March 2012
Saturday 25 February 2012
Thursday 23 February 2012
Pieces created from other texts
This Maddona Song (Hung Up) takes it's background music from Abba's Gimme Gimme Gimme (A man after midnight)
Otis - Jay-Z and Kayne takes samples from Otis Reddings - Take a little tenderness
This Marylin Manson song samples from Sweet Dreams - Eurythmics
Eminem's Stan takes samples from Dido's Thankyou
Tuesday 21 February 2012
'So bad it's good'
The postmodern sensibility that anything can be considered cool in an ironic ‘I know it’s bad,but it’s so bad it’s good’ way
Sunday 5 February 2012
What is creativity?
AS PRELIM;
I didn't particularly have an inspiring magazine that I took inspiration from as I did minimal research and planning. I used the colour scheme purely from what Becca was wearing on the day. I didn't experiment with fonts or layout I just tried to make it look good. I think I did a decent job as I never had used photo shop before; this reflects how resourceful I was in the duration of this task.
AS COURSEWORK;
Originality; I didn't particularly have the mindset of being 'original' throughout this task, I wanted to create a piece of work that was effective and got me the marks. However on the contents page I took heavy inspiration from the ELLE contents page from September 2010.Imagination & Vision; I had a set idea on how i wanted my magazine to look from the beginning of research and planning so I played around with my ideas in order to create something that I was completely happy with.
Inventiveness; In this task I would say that in some respects I have been more inventive than in other tasks, but in others I haven't. I took inspiration from the first double page spread in the ELLE edition with Gwyneth Paltrow on the cover. Her first double page spread said 'Viva la Vida' so I changed mine to a more contemporary song in relation to the genre of my magazine. I also wanted my magazine to look more classy than the average 'pop' magazine such as smash hits.
Resourcefulness; In terms of being resourceful I made the most of what I had each lesson and the time I had with my chosen model. Photo shop at school was extremely annoying to use as the computers were so incredibly slow it made it almost impossible to get any work done. I also did a majority of the work at home. I took roughly 250 photos of my model to make sure I had the best possible shots I could get to put into my magazine.
Creativeness; I would say I was creative within the boundaries of this task as I made the most of the time given and did extra work to ensure my grade was good as possible. I think I did a different 'look' of pop music magazines in comparsion to what is already on the market. However I used many existing conventions of music magazines which could mean I was less creative than I could have been.
How creative do you think you've been?I think that honestly this is the task in which I have been most creative as it is the one that has appealed personally most to me and that I have most interest in. Due to this initial interest I think it spurred me on to make my work as good as possible. I did take a lot of inspiration from ELLE magazine, yet this could be discrediting as it is a fashion magazine as oppose to a music magazine. I tried to edit my photos in different ways and play around with the layout in order to create something that looks both aesthetically pleasing and fits well as a music magazine. I chose a target audience that enjoyed fashion as well as music - thus encouraging them to buy the magazine.
What has prevented you from being more creative?The creativity of this task has definatley been hindered by time constraints, money, equipment and experience constraints. However this didn't hinder specifically me as everyone was in the same boat. The main thing that has prevented me being as creative I possibly could be is the quality of the school computers; as they have consumed more time than necessary.
A2 PRELIM TASK;
As this was a whole group effort it is hard to state my individual accomplishments throughout this task. Performing as the teacher in this video didn't particularly improve my skill in any 'media' skill relevant to this post.
However, I learnt how to edit properly on the mac's which helped extremely when editing our music videos. It could have helped more if we actually used iMovie on our music video rather than premier elements, however it is a similar kind of concept. I also learnt that it is important to group shots together to ease shooting and be as time effective as possible.
A2 MUSIC VIDEO;
Origniality
Judging the final product I wouldn't say that our video is original. We cherrypicked ideas that we both liked from different music videos from this genre in order to create a video that we were both satisfied with. We took a lot of inspiration from Bombay Bicycle club's 'Always Like This' as we felt the shots could also fit into the song that we chose. (Wreckin' Bar - The Vaccines). Contrasting on this point I would say that it is extremely different to be orignial in this day an age, especially with all the contstraints that we had in creating our music video.
Imagination and Inventiveness
We did extensive research and planning so we could both agree on a plan for our music video that we were both satisfied with, although I think it would be fair to judge our imagination to its full extent if we had an unlimited budget, as much time as we needed and all the equipment that is used to create existing music videos as this video isn't a true test of our imagination.
Inspiration
The inspiration for our music video stemmed from many different ' alternative ' music videos. As I have said, we cherry picked the conventions we liked the most and incorporated them into our video. It would be fair to say that our whole music video was inspiration from somewhere, as it would be increasingly difficult to find a video which invents new conventions and proves to be completely original.
Resourcefulness
Considering the time, money and equipment boundaries I would say we were very resourceful. We made the most of our time and what we had in order to create a product that was to the best of our ability. Although with 5 of us being involved in creating the video, it was very hard for us all to have spare time to make it at the same time. Another issue with time would be the school computers which used twice as much time as intended due to software not loading or clips not being transferred to the computer properly. This became increasingly frustrating throughout the editing process.
Vision
Our vision for this video was reasonably similar to our final product. However I think an honest answer would be that we had greater expectations to what our video would turn out like in comparsion to what it did. I'm not saying I was disappointed in our final product but if we hadn't had high expectations our video would probably not have been what it was.
How creative do you think you've been?
Again, I do not think we have been as creative as we possibly could have been as we used existing ideas in the video that we finished creating. However arguing against this would be the statement that 'originality is dead' and that being truly 'creative ' is not something you can measure - merely an opinion.
What has prevented you from being more creative?
The obvious issues that have prevented us from being more creative is time constraints, financial constraints and equipment constraints. These are all reasonably self explanatory and expected of us as none of us had hundreds to spend on a music video, we had deadlines and were provided with the mediocre equipment from school. Saying this everyone in our year has been in more or less the same boat, thus not making anyones video too drastically different concerning these constraints than another.
A2 ANCILLARY TASK
Originality
Taking heavy inspiration from Vampire Weekend's 'Contra' I would say my digipack isn't as original as it perhaps could have been. However I wasn't aiming to make something 'cutting edge' and original. I was aiming to make something that fitted my genre and suited the band look I was trying to achieve. I would say that my poster is slightly more original as I didn't have an existing product that I based my poster on, as I played around with the layout and went with what was the most aesthetically pleasing and looked like a real magazine advert for an album.
I used the conventions of existing digipack/poster products because if they weren't succesful, they wouldn't be used.
Imagination and Inspiration
I would say that I was imaginitive within the boundaries of the task set. I wanted something that looked realistic without being too ambitious. I used the colour of my models t-shirt to make the advert/digipack look less bland for one.
Then again my 'imagination' could be discredited as I took heavy inspiration from Vampire Weekend's 'Contra' for my digipack.
Resourcefulness
I was as resourceful as possible with this task, ensuring I made the best of my time out of school and in school in order to shoot, compose and edit the photos in order for the best results. I don't think I wasted time on this task as I enjoy editing and manipulating images on photoshop.
Vision
I didn't have a specific 'vision' I just knew that I wanted it to look as though it fitted in with the indie culture. I was pleased with how it turned out and was very lucky with the pictures that I took.
How creative do you think you've been?
I would say I have been more creative on this task than on my video as I enjoy this kind of work a lot more than creating a video, thus I am more motivated to make something good as I know I can use photoshop and manipulate images well. However this could be argued as I took a lot of inspiration from other texts for my digipack; questioning my creativity.
OVERALL
Has a set menu of tasks made it easier to be creative or would you have preferred a free choice on what to make? Where you pinned down too much by the task? Or did it free you up to be creative with in the boundaries of the task?
I think with all of the tasks, been given set boundaries was a good idea. In my opinion it uses the same concept of been asked to write an essay without a title; extremely difficult to do. I liked the freeness of what you can make within the task e.g what genre of music magazine as that gave your work an identity and made sure you could put your own 'stamp' on it so to speak.
I think been given these boundaries within the task it allowed you to be more detailed as we were given more guidance as opposed to everyone doing a different task and the teacher not being able to specialise.
It was hard to show creativity in this task as we had minimal knowledge on the subject of magazine covers/contents pages and had limited time in which to create one. I was perhaps more original in this task than my coursework task as I didn't particularly take inspiration from anything to create this - I simply used my previous knowledge of how magazines looked.
I tried to link the theme of 'Drama' into the images I took by making Becca act energetic and confident; I used Becca as we had huge time restraints and she was available at the time I needed her. I didn't particularly have an inspiring magazine that I took inspiration from as I did minimal research and planning. I used the colour scheme purely from what Becca was wearing on the day. I didn't experiment with fonts or layout I just tried to make it look good. I think I did a decent job as I never had used photo shop before; this reflects how resourceful I was in the duration of this task.
How creative do you think you've been?I think I was more creative in comparison to my AS coursework in some respects as I did minimal research and planning and had little previous background knowledge in magazine layout and editing. I stuck to a three pallet colour scheme and incorporate images of my cover model into my my magazine/cover. However my preliminary task was evidently less effective looking than my main products.
What has prevented you from being more creative? My knowledge of magazine layout and editing hindered my creativity in the sense of I simply didn't know how to make it look good. The time constraints were a huge issue as I couldn't improve my work as we had 3 lessons to create our magazine. I also couldn't chose my ideal model as I had to use who was available. My knowledge of photo shop was limited also, so being taught how to use that would have enhanced my creativity on this task.
AS COURSEWORK;
Originality; I didn't particularly have the mindset of being 'original' throughout this task, I wanted to create a piece of work that was effective and got me the marks. However on the contents page I took heavy inspiration from the ELLE contents page from September 2010.Inventiveness; In this task I would say that in some respects I have been more inventive than in other tasks, but in others I haven't. I took inspiration from the first double page spread in the ELLE edition with Gwyneth Paltrow on the cover. Her first double page spread said 'Viva la Vida' so I changed mine to a more contemporary song in relation to the genre of my magazine. I also wanted my magazine to look more classy than the average 'pop' magazine such as smash hits.
Resourcefulness; In terms of being resourceful I made the most of what I had each lesson and the time I had with my chosen model. Photo shop at school was extremely annoying to use as the computers were so incredibly slow it made it almost impossible to get any work done. I also did a majority of the work at home. I took roughly 250 photos of my model to make sure I had the best possible shots I could get to put into my magazine.
Creativeness; I would say I was creative within the boundaries of this task as I made the most of the time given and did extra work to ensure my grade was good as possible. I think I did a different 'look' of pop music magazines in comparsion to what is already on the market. However I used many existing conventions of music magazines which could mean I was less creative than I could have been.
How creative do you think you've been?I think that honestly this is the task in which I have been most creative as it is the one that has appealed personally most to me and that I have most interest in. Due to this initial interest I think it spurred me on to make my work as good as possible. I did take a lot of inspiration from ELLE magazine, yet this could be discrediting as it is a fashion magazine as oppose to a music magazine. I tried to edit my photos in different ways and play around with the layout in order to create something that looks both aesthetically pleasing and fits well as a music magazine. I chose a target audience that enjoyed fashion as well as music - thus encouraging them to buy the magazine.
What has prevented you from being more creative?The creativity of this task has definatley been hindered by time constraints, money, equipment and experience constraints. However this didn't hinder specifically me as everyone was in the same boat. The main thing that has prevented me being as creative I possibly could be is the quality of the school computers; as they have consumed more time than necessary.
As this was a whole group effort it is hard to state my individual accomplishments throughout this task. Performing as the teacher in this video didn't particularly improve my skill in any 'media' skill relevant to this post.
However, I learnt how to edit properly on the mac's which helped extremely when editing our music videos. It could have helped more if we actually used iMovie on our music video rather than premier elements, however it is a similar kind of concept. I also learnt that it is important to group shots together to ease shooting and be as time effective as possible.
A2 MUSIC VIDEO;
Origniality
Judging the final product I wouldn't say that our video is original. We cherrypicked ideas that we both liked from different music videos from this genre in order to create a video that we were both satisfied with. We took a lot of inspiration from Bombay Bicycle club's 'Always Like This' as we felt the shots could also fit into the song that we chose. (Wreckin' Bar - The Vaccines). Contrasting on this point I would say that it is extremely different to be orignial in this day an age, especially with all the contstraints that we had in creating our music video.
Imagination and Inventiveness
We did extensive research and planning so we could both agree on a plan for our music video that we were both satisfied with, although I think it would be fair to judge our imagination to its full extent if we had an unlimited budget, as much time as we needed and all the equipment that is used to create existing music videos as this video isn't a true test of our imagination.
Inspiration
The inspiration for our music video stemmed from many different ' alternative ' music videos. As I have said, we cherry picked the conventions we liked the most and incorporated them into our video. It would be fair to say that our whole music video was inspiration from somewhere, as it would be increasingly difficult to find a video which invents new conventions and proves to be completely original.
Resourcefulness
Considering the time, money and equipment boundaries I would say we were very resourceful. We made the most of our time and what we had in order to create a product that was to the best of our ability. Although with 5 of us being involved in creating the video, it was very hard for us all to have spare time to make it at the same time. Another issue with time would be the school computers which used twice as much time as intended due to software not loading or clips not being transferred to the computer properly. This became increasingly frustrating throughout the editing process.
Vision
Our vision for this video was reasonably similar to our final product. However I think an honest answer would be that we had greater expectations to what our video would turn out like in comparsion to what it did. I'm not saying I was disappointed in our final product but if we hadn't had high expectations our video would probably not have been what it was.
How creative do you think you've been?
Again, I do not think we have been as creative as we possibly could have been as we used existing ideas in the video that we finished creating. However arguing against this would be the statement that 'originality is dead' and that being truly 'creative ' is not something you can measure - merely an opinion.
What has prevented you from being more creative?
The obvious issues that have prevented us from being more creative is time constraints, financial constraints and equipment constraints. These are all reasonably self explanatory and expected of us as none of us had hundreds to spend on a music video, we had deadlines and were provided with the mediocre equipment from school. Saying this everyone in our year has been in more or less the same boat, thus not making anyones video too drastically different concerning these constraints than another.
A2 ANCILLARY TASK
Taking heavy inspiration from Vampire Weekend's 'Contra' I would say my digipack isn't as original as it perhaps could have been. However I wasn't aiming to make something 'cutting edge' and original. I was aiming to make something that fitted my genre and suited the band look I was trying to achieve. I would say that my poster is slightly more original as I didn't have an existing product that I based my poster on, as I played around with the layout and went with what was the most aesthetically pleasing and looked like a real magazine advert for an album.
I used the conventions of existing digipack/poster products because if they weren't succesful, they wouldn't be used.Imagination and Inspiration
I would say that I was imaginitive within the boundaries of the task set. I wanted something that looked realistic without being too ambitious. I used the colour of my models t-shirt to make the advert/digipack look less bland for one.
Then again my 'imagination' could be discredited as I took heavy inspiration from Vampire Weekend's 'Contra' for my digipack.
Resourcefulness
I was as resourceful as possible with this task, ensuring I made the best of my time out of school and in school in order to shoot, compose and edit the photos in order for the best results. I don't think I wasted time on this task as I enjoy editing and manipulating images on photoshop.
Vision
I didn't have a specific 'vision' I just knew that I wanted it to look as though it fitted in with the indie culture. I was pleased with how it turned out and was very lucky with the pictures that I took.
How creative do you think you've been?
I would say I have been more creative on this task than on my video as I enjoy this kind of work a lot more than creating a video, thus I am more motivated to make something good as I know I can use photoshop and manipulate images well. However this could be argued as I took a lot of inspiration from other texts for my digipack; questioning my creativity.
OVERALL
Has a set menu of tasks made it easier to be creative or would you have preferred a free choice on what to make? Where you pinned down too much by the task? Or did it free you up to be creative with in the boundaries of the task?
I think with all of the tasks, been given set boundaries was a good idea. In my opinion it uses the same concept of been asked to write an essay without a title; extremely difficult to do. I liked the freeness of what you can make within the task e.g what genre of music magazine as that gave your work an identity and made sure you could put your own 'stamp' on it so to speak.
I think been given these boundaries within the task it allowed you to be more detailed as we were given more guidance as opposed to everyone doing a different task and the teacher not being able to specialise.
Wednesday 1 February 2012
Random Cover
Using the task set by Mr Ford, this is the random cover that was produced by random search websites.
Tuesday 17 January 2012
Dictionary definition of Postmodernism
Characteristic of a style and school of thought that rejects the dogma and practices of any form of modernism; in architechture, contrasting with international modernism and featuring elements from several periods, esp the Classical, often with ironic use of decoration
Reni Magritte - Ceci n'est pas une pipe
Magritte's work frequently displays a juxtaposition of ordinary objects in an unusual context, giving new meanings to familiar things. The representational use of objects as other than what they seem is typified in his painting, The Treachery of Images (La trahison des images), which shows a pipe that looks as though it is a model for a tobacco store advertisement. Magritte painted below the pipe "This is not a pipe" (Ceci n'est pas une pipe), which seems a contradiction, but is actually true: the painting is not a pipe, it is an image of a pipe. It does not "satisfy emotionally"—when Magritte once was asked about this image, he replied that of course it was not a pipe, just try to fill it with tobacco.
Post Modernism Definition - #5
#5
In the field of art the broad movement in Western art, architecture and design which self-consciously rejected the past as a model for the art of the present. Hence the term modernist or modern art. Modernism gathered pace from about 1850. Modernism proposes new forms of art on the grounds that these are more appropriate to the present time. It is thus characterised by constant innovation. But modern art has often been driven too by various social and political agendas. These were often utopian, and modernism was in general associated with ideal visions of human life and society and a belief in progress. The terms modernism and modern art are generally used to describe the succession of art movements that critics and historians have identified since the Realism of Courbet, culminating in abstract art and its developments up to the 1960s. By that time modernism had become a dominant idea of art, and a particularly narrow theory of modernist painting had been formulated by the highly influential American critic Clement Greenberg. A reaction then took place which was quickly identified as Postmodernism.
From Tate glossary.
Post Modernism Definition - #4
#4
"A general explanation is that postmodernism is a contradiction in terms, as post means after and modern means now, it is impossible for anything to be after now. The term itself is supposed to be deliberately unexplainable.
In terms of literature and media it is generally considered to be anything which makes little attempt to hide the fact that it is not real, it wants you to know that its been created and it wants you to recognise elements from elsewhere (i.e. that they have 'stolen' ideas from other sources), that there are no new or original ideas and that everything is in someway connected. Importantly it doesn’t want you to view it as being any more or less valid or important than a text which pretends to be real, postmodernists want everything to be equal, they want to remove binary opposites and start again. Students are often criticised for being post modern as they tend to like 'naff' things and think they are cool precisely because they aren't cool (thus removing binary opposites)"
Post Modernism Definition - #3
#3
Postmodern texts deliberately play with meaning. They are designed to be read by a literate (ie experienced in other texts) audience and will exhibit many traits of intertextuality. Many texts openly acknowledge that, given the diversity in today's audiences, they can have no preferred reading (check out your Reception Theory) and present a whole range of oppositional readings simultaneously. Many of the sophisticated visual puns used by advertising can be described as postmodern. Postmodern texts will employ a range of referential techniques such as bricolage, and will use images and ideas in a way that is entirely alien to their original function (eg using footage of Nazi war crimes in a pop video).
Post Modernism Definition - #2
#2
"Postmodernism is cultural movement that came after modernism, also it follows our shift from being a industrial society to that of an information society, through globalization of capital. Markers of the postmodern culture include opposing hierarchy, diversifying and recycling culture, questioning scientific reasoning, and embracing paradox. Postmodernism is a term applied to a wide-ranging set of developments in critical theory, philosophy, architecture, art, literature, and culture, which are generally characterized as either emerging from, in reaction to, or superseding modernism"
"Postmodern style is often characterized by eclecticism, digression, collage, pastiche, and irony. Postmodern theorists see postmodern art as a conflation or reversal of well-established modernist systems, such as the roles of artist versus audience, seriousness versus play, or high culture versus kitsch."
By R. Lee from Media Studies 180 Hunter College, Sections 102, 103
Of course, intertextual references are often found in postmodern texts.
"Postmodern style is often characterized by eclecticism, digression, collage, pastiche, and irony. Postmodern theorists see postmodern art as a conflation or reversal of well-established modernist systems, such as the roles of artist versus audience, seriousness versus play, or high culture versus kitsch."
By R. Lee from Media Studies 180 Hunter College, Sections 102, 103
Of course, intertextual references are often found in postmodern texts.
Post Modernism- Definition #1
#1
Label given to Cultural forms since the 1960s that display the following qualities:
Self reflexivity: this involves the seemingly paradoxical combination of self-consciousness and some sort of historical grounding
Irony: Post modernism uses irony as a primary mode of expression, but it also abuses, installs, and subverts conventions and usually negotiates contradictions through irony
Boundaries: Post modernism challenges the boundaries between genres, art forms, theory and art, high art and the mass media
Constructs: Post modernism is actively involved in examining the constructs society creates including, but not exclusively, the following:
Label given to Cultural forms since the 1960s that display the following qualities:
Self reflexivity: this involves the seemingly paradoxical combination of self-consciousness and some sort of historical grounding
Irony: Post modernism uses irony as a primary mode of expression, but it also abuses, installs, and subverts conventions and usually negotiates contradictions through irony
Boundaries: Post modernism challenges the boundaries between genres, art forms, theory and art, high art and the mass media
Constructs: Post modernism is actively involved in examining the constructs society creates including, but not exclusively, the following:
- Nation: Post modernism examines the construction of nations/nationality and questions such constructions
- Gender: Post modernism reassesses gender, the construction of gender, and the role of gender in cultural formations
- Race: Post modernism questions and reassesses constructs of race
- Sexuality: Post modernism questions and reassesses constructs of sexuality
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