Digital technology- and piece of equipment that is equipped with features that allow digital use for example a stills or video camera.

Pre Production AS

I used www.blogger.com to organise my planning materials. Blogger is an example of Web 2.0 technology (O’Reilly, 2004). This means that the technology is interactive – audiences can post and edit content on the blogs – it links to the idea of two-way communication, communication is no longer linear (one way). Web 2.0 software is collaborative. I also uploaded planning materials and evaluations to my blog. I used Final Cut to edit my 2 minute film opening and audio files that had been recorded on the Flash mic when recording the voice over. Movie Maker introduced me to timelines, dissolve and fade transitions, titles and the layering of audio over images.

I used iMac computers to create my film opening. Before I began filming for my sequence I used the Sony hard drive camcorders to practice filming for your prelim task. I then uploaded the video footage using a USB cable to the iMac computers. I then used the software discussed to edit this footage. This initial task helped me learn basic editing and framing skills in terms of shot types.

Production/Post Production AS

Adobe Photoshop allowed me to manipulate graphics to create titles and company logos for my film. I used crop tools such as Marquee (magic wand), Lassos, and colour converters such as Red Eye Corrector, Colour Variations, Colour Dropper, Dodge and Burn.

I used iMovie to create an animatic for my film sequence. I also used iMovie to create examples of test footage. I used Live Type on the Mac computers to create interesting titles for my film opening. Once I had manipulated the effect, size and colour of my title I then needed to render out the title for use in Final Cut. 

I used Final Cut to edit my 2-minute film sequence; I then used the basic features of the software package and used razor and in/out markers to edit footage. I also used some effects and transitions; I used the chroma key in Final Cut to recreate the sin city effect. The top part of the chroma key allows you to select the colours which are going to taken away. Other options allow to select a very specific range of the spectrum. When the colour is chosen the invert key swaps the selection and keep the colours, which have been selected. I also had to use the colour correction to make our footage black & white by reducing the saturation and increasing the saturation in the shots where colour is present.

I also used Garageband to create my soundtrack and to record sound effects for my film for example the gun shot noise used. I also used the flash mic to record the voice over of the woman’s voice. I then imported MP3 file using a USB cable in to the software. Once the sound was completed I had to export it to iTunes before dragging onto the audio track in the Final Cut.

1. (A) 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. Refer to a range of examples in your answer to show how these skills developed over time.

1. (A) 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. Refer to a range of examples in your answer to show how these skills developed over time.

    

      Throughout this two year course my skills in the use of digital technology have massively improved and with this improvement of my skills it has influenced my creative thinking and decision making and has allowed me to flaunt my new skills in my media productions. Over the last two years I have been part of a group that created an opening sequence to a film noir and in my final year my group created a music video. In both of these tasks I have needed basic filming and editing skills meaning I needed to be able to work a camera and operate programmes such as Final Cut, IMovie and Adobe Photoshop.
        

       For the beginning of my tasks in both first year and second year I began by signing up to Blogger. I used Blogger to organise my planning schedule and materials I will need to know for my project and also for my exam. As Blogger is online based it is interactive as it allows my audience to leave comments and feedback on my work, this is a great way to improve work by listening to an outsiders feedback allowing me to make corrections to my work to provide a good quality media blog. With the blog I can also upload my work and material using web links and also URL’s and embed codes to upload videos from various sites such as Youtube, Slideshare and more. It also allowed me to access, add to and improve my work form any computer and this helped me a lot to keep organised.

I      I also used Final Cut in both years to edit short videos and audio files that I recorded from the Sony Cameras. These basic skills on Final Cut allowed me to be able to edit my work and upload it onto my Youtube account allowing this to then be uploaded on to my blog. In the second year of my digital technology skills I became more aware of timelines and transitions which helped me to edit my work more professionally and precisely also allowing me to add titles to my work and layering audio with images and moving images.

   
       In the production side of my projects I used IMac computers. These highly advanced computers allow me to create my film opening and my music video both recorded with the Cannon XL2.With the music video I used the Cannon XL2 to get a good quality off footage. However I was more aware of the features of this camera compared to last year so I was able to use it more effectively. The IMac computers then allowed me to upload all my footage via USB cables, allowing a smooth upload making me able to access the videos to edit them from the computer using Final Cut. When I was on set for the filming of the music video I also used the Nikon D8O Stills camera to capture images for my digipak and poster. I then uploaded them to the iMacs and used Adobe Photoshop to edit them. I had no previous knowledge of this software therefore I had to teach myself to use the tools such as the marquee, colour corrector, dodge, burn, crop and various filters to create the effect on the images I wanted.

      In the production I used the programme Final Cut the most to edit my clips as this is what I was most familiar with, in my first year of media I did not have very many skills of final cut as in my group I was not part of the editing and uploading so all of my skills with Final Cut have came from my second year. Final Cut allowed me to edit my footage using the razor to cut bits of my clip that I did not want to include in my video. In part of my video I used a transition that faded out to show the character having a flash back. This was very effective however I would have been unable to do it in my first year, as I would not have the significant knowledge. Final Cut allowed me to enhanced my knowledge of media technologies with the timeline and the use of layering various audios with footage and images, these skills being far more superior to my AS portfolio skills.

      With the posters and digipak I again used Adobe Photoshop which I was unsure of how to use to begin with however, I learnt to blend images together whilst creating my digipak and worked with colour corrector and various other filters to enhance the green colours of the trees and the red of Katie’s jacket as red was a very important colour that ran throughout our whole video. Also the image I used for the poster was quite dark to begin with but by enhancing the colours I was able to use this image and it ended up looking very effective and I was extremely please with the outcome.

Useful Theory

Antonio Gramsci - Hegemony

 
Italian theorist Antonio Gramsci (1881-1937). He emphasised that the control of society by one group or one set of political ideas was not necessarily achieved by force or control of arms, but by persuasion and ‘consent’ – the basis of democracy. The rulers manage to convince the mass of the population that they are ‘better off’ accepting current government policies. Maintaining hegemonic control is thus a process of constantly reinforcing the message and developing the argument. The concept of hegemony allows for substantial change in ideas over time, even though the same groups remain in power. These groups constantly adjust their ideas and find new ways to gain the consent of those they dominate.

In media terms the Mass Media both perpetuate cultural hegemony and are a cultural hegemony in themselves in that a relatively small number of big companies, e.g. News

Corp., The BBC, Time Warner, Sony etc., control most of the world’s media, and this in turn allows them to control most of what we see, hear and know. This, in turn, allows them to control what we think, selecting only ideas that serve its interests, i.e. bourgeois capitalism. This is known as a ‘Top Down’ model of dominant ideologies.

David Buckingham

“A focus on identity requires us to pay close attention to the diverse ways in which media and technologies are used in everyday life, and their consequences for both individuals and for social groups”

Mikhail Bakhtin 

The Russian philosopher Bakhtin believed that individual people cannot be finalized, completely understood, known or labeled. He saw identity as the unfinalised self meaning a person is never fully revealed or known. This ties in with the idea that identity is a fluid concept, a life-long project that is never complete. 

Stan Cohen 

Folk Devils and Moral Panics (1972) 

David Gauntlett 

'Identities are not 'given' but are constructed and negotiated.'  

Michel Foucault  (French thinker 1926-1984)

For Foucault, people do not have a 'real' identity within themselves; that's just a way of talking about the self -- a discourse. An 'identity' is communicated to others in your interactions with them, but this is not a fixed thing within a person. It is a shifting, temporary construction. Power is something which can be used and deployed by particular people in specific situations, which itself will produce other reactions and resistances; and isn't tied to specific groups or identities.  Power outcomes are not inevitable and can be resisted.

(The power in our instance would be MASS MEDIA) 

Plan B

This video fuels the negative representation of youths collective identity. Plan be calls someone a chav and then says that must mean "council house and violent" just because he is wearing a hoodie, this is because this is how the media and other stereotype everyone wearing a hoodie. There is a clip in the video when the youths are being chased by police dogs this could perhaps show the police abusing their authority by want to hurt the youths on the street. I think in this video and song Plan B is trying to challenge the Stereotype by stating the worst in people and mimicking the government and also the view of others due to media influence. I think Plan B hope to give the youth of today a voice through his song and video.

How far were the responses of the rioters themselves given space in the media

Many interviews that were conducted with the youths just portrayed them in a negative light and therefore gave the media more ammunition to fire against youths. For example one news report described the youths featured as "dripping in designer good" insinuating they had looted them when there was no evidence of this. The responses of the rioters were not given as much space in media as they should have received however the responders on the rioters were given much more space within the media and this created a bad persona surrounding the youths

News Reports

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xwK2R8XlYMA&NR=1&feature=fvwp

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-XAK6kuoFI&feature=endscreen&NR=1

News Paper articles on London Riots

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/3787061/600-riot-yobs-left-DNA-on-windows.html

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/3797021/Feral-underclass-to-blame-for-riots.html

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/3795997/Teen-in-court-over-riot-attack.html

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/3747365/Olympics-girl-is-London-riot-yob.html