From the beginning of my AS level music magazine to the production and post production of my A2 level music video I had to research, analyse and incorporate existing conventions into my products to make them look as professional and realistic as possible. the analyses of real media texts were leading me to be inspired in the way that i wanted my products to look, Jack London said "You can't wait for inspiration, you have to go after it with a club" this is effectively what i was doing by analysing pre existing conventions, i was finding my own inspiration.
I can easily say however may capabilities of analysing these conventions however did improve over time. In my first product (AS music magazine) i analysed a variety of magazines such as NME and Q to help my create my indie rock magazine named 'BritRock'. Whilst analysing these magazine however i only really picked out the crucial and most obvious conventions from the magazines, I found myself developing the colour schemes, mast heads and cover line styles of the magazines i was looking at but not much more which made my magazine any different. I didn't want it to look to different as it was trying to fit into a certain genre with a pre existing audience, but i maybe could have made it a bit more detailed if i remade my magazine.
When I began to look at other music videos i realised i was now much more capable of analysing other music videos and could effectively recreate any video of my choice as their was not much difference between the genre of videos especially within the indie rock and performance genre of music video which is what i decided to make. Voltaire said "Creativity is nothing but judicious imitation" which is what i have described previously, so i set about taking my favourite bits from different videos and planning how to put them into my video. Now however i was analysing much more than the simplistic conventions of the products like i did with the magazines previously. I now looked at every aspect from the clothing and style of the bands to any semantic codes running throughout the video. My main inspirations when creating my band, were british indie rock bands such as the enemy, Kasabian and Oasis, one running theme across the bands was the dress sense, the bands can be seen to indulge in a football 'casuals' style. So i tried to recreate this in my video by dressing the band in brands such as Fred Perry and Adidas Originals. Midway through my video my lead singer can be seen to throw the mic stand to the floor, this ties in with the convention of rebellion which can be an unseen pragmatic feature of indie rock bands, and i tried to make it look similar to the way that Julian Casablancas throws his microphone stand in 'The Strokes' music video for 'Last Nite'.
So overall i have improved vastly over the period of two years as far as analysis of existing conventions and products are concerned. I have managed to not only analyse in more detail but also use conventions i have analysed in my own products. I now would find it much easier to make a product because i am more aware of how to analyse pre existing conventions and don't have to make a harder job out of something which is quite simple. I can also now relate well to what Albert Einstein said, "Creativity is contagious pass it on" Its true creativity is contagious and in order for creativity to exist people must pass it on by creating products using existing conventions to allow future producers to add their on spin on something that very much isn't theirs.
