Skills Development

On my Foundation Portfolio, I did two prelimary tasks which were to create a 'Advert for a Perfume' and front cover, contents page for a 'College Magazine'. These tasks were basically for me to get used to using different programmes such as Photoshop which was completely new to me, I'd never used it before. I then also made front page, contents page and double page spread for a 'Music Magazine' that was completely created by myself. The genre of my music magazine was "Indie so it had to have all the codes and conventions related to "indie". For my artist that was featured on the main front cover, contents page and double page spread was styled in very soft neutral colours with added floral patterns. I wanted to make my artist girly, but by not adding bright colours such as "Hot Pink" it didn't look like a Pop magazine.

Before I started my AS Portfilio I had very average skills of some Microsoft programmes such as PowerPoint, Word and Publisher, these were just used in computer work. I used Microsoft Publisher for making posters and leaflets for example. I had also used very amatur editing programmes such as Picaso Google and Picnik which are very basic and nothing in comparasion to Photoshop. I used these in my spare time just for editing photos of my own etc. I had basic experience of editing photographs for example, the contast, the colour and also cropping.

When I started to use Photoshop I found it difficult at first, because it seemed so different to what I've used before and very complexed. The hardest thing to understand were the different layers you need to keep adding in order to use Photoshop correctly and also keep everything in order so if you go wrong you can easily delete a layer. My favorite tool of Photoshop was 'airbrush' effect you could put on, to make it look like your model had perfect-looking blemish free skin! I did this by using the 'Gaussian Blur', creating a new layer and erasing the effect all over a part from the skin so it looked realisitic. I used this on all of my photographs to ensure that they all look the same. I think this is an very effective tool as it's one of the main conventions of a music magazine. I used this tool because it's one of the main convention for any magazine, it brings the photo from just looking like an ordinary image to looking like a professional photograph.

My skills developed in my foundation Portfolio as I got more used to using Photoshop, I started to experiement more. I would Google or Youtube different effects you could use on the software and try them out, even if it didn't always work, I just needed practice. I really came to terms with cutting an individual out of a image, this was a really useful tool as you could copy and paste it into a different image without the background being there and this sometimes looked very effective, and is one of the main conventions of a magazine. To do this you needed to use the cut tool on Photoshop to carefully cut around the image this took time and patience especially if the image wasn't on a plain background.

Key Audience Terms

QUALITATIVE DATA

Qualitative data is usually very personal, and about feelings and meaning. Qualitative methods are usually interviews, case studies or participant observation. It is very high in validity and offer depth and meaning. 

QUANTITATIVE DATA

Quantitative data is statistical, mathematical and usually focuses on numbers and frequencies than meaning and experience. Quantitative methods are usually questionnaires and experiments. They are also very low in validity as they have no reasons or explanations. 

PSYCHO-GRAPHIC DATA

Psychographics is the study of personality, values, attitudes, interests, and lifestyles. It focus's on opinions, interests and activities. 

DEMOGRAPHIC DATA

Demographic data is current statistical information of population. Demographics include age, gender, race, social class, employment status, location and disabilities. 

Influential Texts

Here are three Music Videos that I particularly like, one of them being the soundtrack to the Music Video I am going to be creating. I am going to ask a series of questions:

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Rate the videos out of 10 for:
- Editing
- Cinematography
- Mise-en-Scene
- Lighting
- Performance of the Artist

 MARINA AND THE DIAMONDS - "Radioactive"

LANA DEL REY - "Video Games"
FLORENCE + THE MACHINE - "Landscape"

Storyboard

Music Genre

FLORENCE + THE MACHINE

The band Florence and the Machine are known to be the music genre Indie-Pop or Indie-Rock. Indie pop is an alternative rock music that first orientated in the UK in the mid 1980's. Indie pop was dominated by independent labels and bands such as The Smiths. Typically instruments used in indie pop are vocals, guitar and bass drum. Indie rock is very much the same, except the fact that it oriented in the United States, not just the UK and also brings in different type of music such as "grunge". It was difficult to find artists alike to Florence as the band is fairly individual as there is nobody else around like them.

THE VACCINES

Just like Florence and the Machine, The Vaccines are also Indie-Rock music genre and British! Although The Vaccines have a different style in music, the feel of independent music is still there amongst these bands. The Vaccines have been described using other genres as 50's rock and roll, 80's American hardcore and good pop music with a twist.

MARINA AND THE DIAMONDS

Marina and the Diamonds music genre is indie-pop and electronic. She's quite similar to Florence and the Machine as they both have a very strong vocal. Marina and the Diamonds has more of a "fun" aspect to her music than Florence who sings about dark, serious situations.

 

THE SMITHS

The smiths are indie-pop just like Florence and the Machine. They was the most important independent alternative rock band to merge from the British indpendent music scene.

 

Artist and song

I've chosen "Landscape" by Florence and the machine, "Ceremonials".

Artist + Song on Prezi

The Brief

A Promotion package for the release of an album, to include a music promo video, together with two of the following three options:-~ A Website homepage for the band; ~A cover for its release as part of a digipak (CD/DVD package); ~A magazine advertisement for the digipak (CD/DVD package).