Digital Technology

What is meant by Digital Technology?
Electrical digital equipment machines that help us create and interact.

Examples of digital technology in my own work:

School Magazine- For my school mag I used a SLR camera to help me create images for my cover and contents page. I then used Photoshop to make my images more professional and high quality.

CLC Video- I used a video camera for filming the video, then Premiere Elements for editing the clips together to create the  final product.

Music Magazine- For my music magazine I used Photoshop for editing the images I used, I also used an SLR camera for capturing my images and finally Blogger for posting all my findings and research.

Music Video and Digipak Project- For this project I used a very wide range of digital technologies firstly I used a video camera for capturing the footage, an SLR camera for taking photos for the digipak, advert
and locations. Then a green screen for my evaluations, the Blogger for posting my findings, music video research and anything worth posting for my project. Furthermore the internet for browsing youtube for real music video inspiration and google for images I could put on my blog and didipak research. And finally Premirere Elements for editing all my footage together.

Location shot showing where I would be filming.

Draft of my digipak I posted on Blogger.

Creativity

Definitions:
1) Having the ability or power to create; human beings are creative animals.
2) Characterised by originality and expressiveness.
3) One who displays productive originality.

Scott Adams quote:
"Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep."

Reprisentation

'A thought or idea that can be presented in your own way.'
'How the media shows us things about society - but this is thought careful meditation, hence re-presentation.'

Sections of Representation:

Ideologies: an idea or a way of thinking. Levi Strauss 1958- the preferred syntagm (the preferred reader.)

Semiotics: how meaning is constructed through language and codes.

Theorist Stuart Hall
Representation and the media.

- Visual representation - a distortion of reality.
  ~ taking something that already exists and present it somewhere else.
  ~ representation is the way meaning is given to things that are presented.
  ~ if it is given meaning, then there is a change between the meaning and interpretation e.g. Michael Jackson true meaning (helping charities) media representation (in the papers, hanging baby over balcony)

Theorist Rolland Barthes

- Denotation: something in its simplest form.
-Connotation: something that symbolises something e.g. poppy = war.

Theorist Ferdinand Saussure

- Signifier: Meaning something the basically signifies something e.g. logo for a bank.
- Signified: Your own interpretation e.g. a bank could mean to you a hill or an actual bank where you get money from.

Mulvey and 'Gaze' Theory
- All began in 1975.
- Argues that female characters were represented as positive objects of female sexual desire.
- You watch films through the males eyes.
- 'Men look, women are looked at.'
- Her work has been criticised for only focusing on the male heterosexual spectre.

How representation relates to my video
  Signifies
- Dribbling paint symbolises the end of the relationship, the big break up.
- Black and white clips represent the couples happy past.
- Emptiness of beach as Dom walks along, signifying the loneliness hes going through.

  Social Group Representation - Stereotypical clothing for average school kids, loved up couple, middle class environment.

  Objects/subjects of gaze
- Paint dribbles as they are one of the main parts of the video.
- Dom, as he is the lead boy who is having his heart broken.
- Laura, as she the lead girl who is the heart breaker.

- But my video does go against this theory as there aren't many 'male gaze' camera angles as the band featured in my video are all males.

 

Reality

- Typical love scene i.e. in the home on a date.

- Walks along the beach.

- Gazing out on to the sea (when Dom is alone)

- Real life situations: Young couple fall in love, move in together, break up, girl in this case upsets the boy.

  Music Magazine- While on the topic of the male gaze my magazine features no female images in it so it contradicts the point of Masquerade.

Genre Part 1

Uses and Gratification Model

Diversion- allowing people to escape from their normal everyday lives.

Personal Relationships- using the media for emotional and other interaction.

Personal Identity- finding yourself reflected in texts, learning behaviour and values for texts e.g. for my music video people can relate to how the girl has broken up with the boy and slamming the door on the way out.

What Is Genre?
Genre basically means type or category.
*Hybrid Genre- a mixture of genres.

Repertoire of Elements
- Conventions of genre, these features often help the audience to recognise what they are viewing.
- Each genre has its own repertoire of elements including props, style, setting and narrative.
  ~ for my music video I took a lot of inspiration from the band Kings of Leon, from their indie/rock style of clothing and the settings they preformed one of their songs. In the song Sex on Fire it was preformed in an abandoned warehouse; where as ours was similar by being in an abandoned house.

Genre Part 2

Theorist:
Roland Bart
- French theorist who analysed denotations and connotations.
Denotations
- recognising the visual content of what is presented in the visual message.
- can be interpreted in a variety of ways depending on context and perhaps even control exerted by the producer.
Iconography (representational meaning)
- the way on which people take different meanings
e.g. the OK sign means different things in different countries.
Iconological Symbolism
- moving away from identity generally accepted conventions to an idea perhaps not considered by the creator.
Iconographical Symbolism
- this layer attaches meaning to image content e.g. the clothing a karate man wears will suggest something to you.
Denotations in my music magazine:
- the recognition that they are a band and that the lead singer is prominent by being at the front of the image on the cover.
Iconographical meaning in my music magazine:
- band showing they have power (arms crossed with a positive tall stance)
Iconological meaning in my music magazine:
- on my contents page it features studio and gig images, photos probably not known to be taken by the band often showing a more relaxed pose.