Discuss how one or more groups are represented through the media

All media has gone through mediation which is where real people and events are changed into words or images in order to be consumed by an audience therefore showing a construction of reality. This links to Giroux who argues that representation of youth is an empty category because it is constructed by adults therefore it is not necessarily representing reality. Many forms of media represent youth to be aggressive and rebellious such as the historic film "Quadrophenia' and the contemporary documentary 'Unsafe sex in the city' however this is contrasted by programs such as 'Young Apprentice' which focus on the hard working attitude of youths. Therefore this shows that the representation of youth is dependant on the producers opinion on how they want them to be represented. 

On the other hand, pluralism suggest that the media is diverse, with a wide range of choices, and that media texts just mirror society, and if particular representations are dominant its because its popular with its audience. This shows that the audience must be entertained by the representation in which they are consuming therefore producer will continue to show the same representation as they want to meet audience expectations. 

Plan for Question 4

How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning stages?

Construction

• Nikon D3100
• Premiere Pro
• Photoshop
• 
  

Homework required for 5th February

Describe the ways in which your project work was aided by your use of digital technology and how your ability to use digital technology developed over time.Throughout the course of media studies, i have developed my skills when referring to the use of digital technology. This is apparent throughout the development from my Foundation portfolio to my Advanced portfolio. 

Firstly in my foundation portfolio, i had to do a preliminary task which was to create a short video including specific shots such as some walking through a door, shown through a match on action shot, and two people having a conversation, shown through a master shot, over the shoulder and shot reverse shot. Throughout this task, i used a Nikon D3100 camera on a tripod. This allowed me to become more confident with the camera so that when i came to shooting my film opening, the shots were more planned and skilful. After i had all the required shots, i uploaded them on to the Mac computer to then be edited on IMovie. As this task did not require any complex editing techniques,  i felt that IMovie was the most suitable software to use especially considering i had not edited anything before. IMovie taught me how to cut videos, order them how i wanted as well as add music and titles to achieved the desired effect.  Finally to distribute my preliminary task, i uploaded it to Youtube using Web 2.0 to then upload on to my blog. 

For my main task in my foundation portfolio, i decided to create a horror film opening. This required a lot of research therefore i used Web 2.0 as my main source. I used Youtube to find existing horror film openings. This allowed me to understand the conventions of horror opening in order to use it in my own work.  Then went on to use Adobe Premiere Pro, a more complex editing software.  This allowed me to included some of the conventions which i found from earlier research such as fades to black and short cuts using the razor tool. This also had a more complex way to export my finished video allowing me to make it HD for the best possible picture. I then once again used web 2.0 to upload my video the blog. 

In the second year for my advanced portfolio, I created 2 adverts for my main task along with a online pop-up and sponsorship sequence for my ancillary task. Within research and planning I used Youtube in order to look at existing adverts to see which shots were used as well as the length and speed of the shots. When editing in premier pro, the software was more complex allowing me to create a more professional and complex advert. I was able to speed up, reverse and crop clips. This meant that my advert could meet the required conventions which I found during my research of other fashion adverts. 
For the ancillary part of this task I had to create a web pop up for which I used photoshop as this includes features allowing me to delete the background of a photo, add text and change the levels and curves. I also had to create a sponsorship sequence to introduce a tv program. This required recording a voice over using a mic. I had to practice using the microphone as this does not work every time and doesn't always give a clear sound however with practice I was able to get a smooth recording. 

Overall i can see a significant progress and development of my skill using digital technology. I was able to upgrade in editing software from IMovie to Premiere Pro allowing me to use much more complex editing techniques. 

Narrative Homework- 20th January 2015

Apply theories of narrative to one of your coursework productions.

In my foundation portfolio in my first year i created a film opening. When choosing the film genre, we decided to chose horror as we had wider knowledge of the different narratives in which we could have. Eventually we decided to have the base of our narrative around a reoccurring nightmare. 

A key factor in which we had to keep in mind when developing our narrative was to keep the audiences attention. Therefore we decided to follow Todorov's theory by including a equilibrium, a disruption of the equilibrium and a recognition of the distruption. These are the first three stages of his theory. We were only able to included three stages as we were only creating the opening however if we was to have created the whole film we would have carried on to show the repair of the equilibrium and then a new equilibrium. 

The way in which we portrayed the distruption of the equilibrium was the use of short straight cuts which showed the distress of the main character. At the beginning, the main character can be seen to be sleeping at night due to the use of dark lighting. However her sleep is then distrupted by her nightmare which shows two young girls from a early period. By including the reoccurring nightmare, the narrative was more complex as it meant changing from different time periods almost like flashbacks. 

Another key factor involving the narrative is leaving the audience with questions which would then make them want to continue and watch the whole film. This is called an enigma code which was introduced by Barthes. We created a enigma code by giving the audience little information about the characters however showing the short straight cuts which do not necessarily connect.

Also to ensure that we had established characters, we followed some of the types of characters shown in Propp's theory of fairy tales including a hero and villain etc. We followed this in a way in which we had two villain portraying the sign of evil throughout the opening. 

Overall the narrative of our film opening was developed and created from the help of theories from Propp, Todorov and Barthes.