explain how far understanding of the conventions of exsisting media texts influenced the way you created your own media product and refer to a range of exmaples to show how these skills have developed over time

explain how far understanding of the conventions of exsisting media texts influenced the way you created your own media product and refer to a range of exmaples to show how these skills have developed over time: Within the two years working on my media course I have created two different media products, these being a thriller film opening in AS and for A2 I created a rock music video. For my AS production I had to research the different codes and conventions of thriller films in order to make ours more realistic and captivating for the audience. For this I was used the website you tube a lot in order to research different thriller film openings in order to look at the different codes and conventions used within different thriller films. For examples of thriller films I looked into the openings of well received famous thriller films in order to use techniques that have been received well by previous audiences. For the films I decided to use Indiana Jones, silence of the lambs, seven and shutter island. For each of the films we decided to take key different bits of the films that made them to be iconic thrillers and implement them into our opening in our own way. With Indiana Jones we decided to focus the film around an object or artifact. We thought that with typical thriller films the codes and conventions usually have them revolve around either a specific object or person and we thought that with a strange unknown artifact being the center of attention within the film it would make the audience more curious about the film and what will happen regarding the artifact. With the film silence of the lambs we took the iconic scenes of Clarice talking to Hannibal lector through interrogation. As such for our opening we decided to have the current events being a interrogation scene however with darker more mysterious thrillers we wanted to make ours seem more enigmatic to the audience and so we decided to alter the classic scene to make it more of a dark room with the interrogators face covered and the shot being scene from the interviewee, this way making it seem more confusing for the audience and making them want to watch on. With the film seven we decided to use the iconic opening of different clips and symbols to be added onto the artifact and being presented within the interrogation, this way it would add to the mystery surrounding the thriller opening with how their typical codes and conventions give subtle hints to plot devices mentioned earlier on in the film to once again be used later within the main scenes. (Here this being how the opening scenes of seven seem to depict the planning and grotesqueness nature of the serial killer within the film). With shutter island most of the film constantly adds mystery to the plot and makes the audience watch on, with this in mind and shutter islands dark setting and use of editing at key moments we decided to make the text scenes be added in with smoke to add the enigmatic effect which is the key conventions of thriller films. Within my product for AS I feel that I researched throughly into the different codes and conventions of thrilller openings and I have continued this onto my A2 work by making thorough research for my rock music video. Reasearching the codes and conventions of different music videos differed from thriller openigns grealy in as well as researching the types of videos used to portray the lyrics of a song I had to also look at the different codes and conventions of rock music videos in terms of different camera shots to best represent the theme of the song and at the same time flow well with the acctual song used itself. For my A2 research I once again used the website youtube as my primary source of infomation for analysing pre exisisting products of music videos. For my research I used rock bands such as fallout boy, 30 seconds to mars, sum 41 (to gain inspiration from their other videos) and this allowed us to see the specific codes and conventions used within music videos of the same genre, for example the fast cut action shots and the use of different lighting effects in order to portray the band as more 'rock-ish'. The main progression between my AS and A2 products would be as already stated before the different shot types that was used to make the song seem more fast paced. this was key as it meant that I would have to look in much finer detail as to exsisting procuts to see when the shots change in time with the music for example fallout boys 'this aint a scene its an arms race' where the pace suddenly picks up and at the same time the video shots change from a close up of the singers face to a wide shot of the entier band playing while the camera movements are quickend. The main product I used to gain inspiration for my music video was bon jovis 'its my life'. With its fast cut shots and use of running towards a goal I felt it linked in well with the lyrics of the video and at the same time gave me an excelent idea that conforms to similar rock videos for example blink 182's video 'whats my name again?' where as with the bon jovi song the band members were also running around the town in order to get to a destination and make it entertaining for the audiance to watch. Over the last two years I feel that through research it has helped me understand the specific codes and conventions needed within both thriller films and rock music videos and by understanding the codes and conventions it helped me improve the overall quality of my products and also made them seem more offical and and enjoyable for the audiance to view. *please note* "I am not sure why I am unable to paragraph my essay as while typing it up I was paragraphing it into different sections, unfortunately when previewing my work it has left no individual paragraphs however I am informing you that this is not intended and I think it is due to bloggers new formatting style and is not of my own accord."