Media terminology

Audience- A group of people reading any media text.

Connotations- The cultural meanings brought to a sign or symbol by the person/people interpreting it.

Convergence- Hardware and software coming together across media, and companies coming together across similar boundaries.

Copyright- The ownership of ideas as creative or intellectual property.

Deconstruction- A theoretical investigation of a cultural product or cultural actions, to see how they are put together and how they can only be understood in relation to other texts or cultural products or meanings.

Diagetic- Describes what is present in the world of a text, as opposed to extra material added for the audience, which is extra-diagetic or non-diagetic.

Digital- Information broken down into noughts and ones.

Download- The practise of selecting and receiving digital information from an online source on a computer, as opposed to sending it by upload.

Globalisation- The shift in media distribution from local or national to international and to the whole world at once.

Hybrid- A fusion of more than one media form, or a mixing of global and local, or mixing of identities.

Iconic- A sign which resembles directly what it represents.

Identity- The complex way that one has a representative sense of oneself.

Linear- In a clear, logical order moving in one direction.

Macro- Big broad themes. the sum of lots of micro things added up.

Media studies 2.0- A response to web 2.0 proposed by gauntlett in which the role of online user-generated content and sharing is seen as fundamental to how we understand media audiences.

Mode of address- How a text in any media speaks to its audience.

Multimedia- A cultural product produced using a variety of media.

narrative- The way information is ordered, or a story is told.

Piracy- Distribution of media material that infringes copyright law.

Polysemic- Plural meaning as opposed to fixed singular meaning.

Representation- Students of media are taught that media texts do not present a neutral, transparent view of reality, but offer instead a mediated re-presentation of it.

Semiotics- The science of signs and symbols from saussure's linguistics (1974) and barthes' structuralism (1973). The study of the sign in terms of its connotations within cultural myth systems.

Stereotype- A blunt overstated representation of a type of person. Usually negative.

Synergy- Interconnected marketing and distribution of media products across a range of platforms and sectors.

Deconstructing album posters

I have chosen this poster for Led-Zeppelin to deconstruct. It has the typical conventions of a poster for an album, with the artists name on top, album artwork in the middle and name of the Cd at the bottom with added info like the record company, and in what form the music is available on. The album artwork usually relates to the band or songs on the album or just an image of the artist. As this one has no image of the artist im assuming the image is relevant to the songs. Its a cartoon image of London, including the iconic big ben as that is what a lot of people associate London with, therefore helps people to know where the image is supposed to be off. It also has a large blimp in the sky, this is very relevant to the artist as another name for it is a Led Zeppelin balloon.

Filming

Today i was planning to go out filming for the rest of my video, this has had to be cancelled as it has been raining heavily for the past few days, this is disrupting my filming quite a lot as i could of got it done by now. I also cant go out and do a photo shoot for my album cover as this will also be outside.  There are only a few weeks left until the deadline for the video and i am getting worried that if the weather does not pick up i wont be able to finish my video. Its also difficult to work around when my characters can take the time to be filmed as they do have other priorities.

Reflecting on my work

I have made some more of my music video and come to the conclusion that i need more of a narrative. Therefore i have come up with the idea of, using pictures of when the girls were little together for the beginning. I will blow the pictures up and they can hold them over there faces. They can then reveal themselves as 'young adults' and the video will carry on to be what i have already done. At the end im going to have them fall down onto a sofa, or be watching the sunset as the day ends and the girls are still friends.

Audience feedback

I have now made about a minute of my music video, i showed my peers for some feedback. They liked the framing and colour of the shots and also the way he sun reflected off the sea. They also liked the effects i added using imovie on some of the shots, to make it slightly more interesting. However they did decided that one of my shots is held for too long therefore i need to make a cut in the middle of it. I have also decided that it needs a narrative and my audience agreed.

Album cover designs

 Here are two designs i have come up with for my album cover that i think will fit in with the genre of my music video and the actual video. The cover of the album will be square, therefore there will not be so much blank space like on my designs. The spots coming of the people on both images are shiny speckles of sun beams. I will be editing these in just like the wings on the second one. I will do this by using Photoshop. I'm going to ask my peers to see which they prefer as a cover and which looks best.

Conventions of an album cover

From doing this exercise, i have learnt that an album cover is very simple. It does not need to be made too busy as it will no longer be attractive to the public.

Planning my album cover

I have been online and googled Taylor swifts album covers. I chose Taylor because she looks very much like the friend i am using to film (April) and also in a natural environment like in a field or in the stream. The writing on both covers are white and italic. Her name looks as though she has signed it herself, making the cover more personal. I have taken lots of inspiration from these and may be trying out some similar ideas. I will be drawing up some plans in the near future of ideas for my own album cover. I will also be designing an advert to go in a magazine for my album. I will also be making a buble of the conventions of an album cover, to make sure mine includes everything it can to look its best. 

How to get a movie from imovie to your blog

1. First go up to the tool bar at the top, click export movie and export.

2. Next go to imovie projects as it should have automatically saved to this file in your area. 

3. Right click on the video and go on get info. 

4. Change the name of the video to .mov and a box will appear saying use .mov? (click yes)

5. The video is now the right format to upload to youtube, log into youtube and press upload video.

6. Once it has uploaded onto youtube, go to the bottom of the video, click share and embed. Copy the code onto html in 'new post' on blogger'. 

Audience feedback

I have made the first 9 second of my music video and created the title. There are 2 frames to this, i am going to show some of my peers the video and get some feedback, i know this will not be much as it is not very long, but it will give me a good idea if i my shots are adequate. Here are some screen shots of what my video consists of so far. This sunday i am planning to go out filming with my characters to film the rest of my video.

Christopher Atkinson, male 17 listens to Michel Buble- Good establishing shot and lighting in both shots

Calum McConnachie, male 17 listens to Kanye West - Looks professional

Charlie Thompson, male 17 listens to Take that -Its great, fits well with the music

Tom Bowern, male 17 listens to mumford and sons- I like the editing on the beat and the framing of the establishing shot

Half term filming

Over half term i had planned to go out filming with my cast members. They cancelled last minute therefore i went out on my own and took my establishing shot and a few shots of the sea that did not need people in it. I did not use a tripod and i could not get it steady on the rocks at the beach. I was worried my shots would turn out wobbly but i think they will work really well. I used a panning shot for my establishing shot to show the viewer the location. From this i have learnt that it is possible to get a steady shot without a tripod but if i choose this approach again , i will take lots of different cuts of the same shot, to make sure at least one of them is use able as this is what i did and i only like one of the shots i took.

I have now began to edit my shots and make a new movie project in imovie. I asked my friend to take a picture of me editing to show i am independently working on my video and learning how to use imovie as i go.