Wednesday, 24 March 2010
Sunday, 21 March 2010
Question 3: What Have You Learnt From Your Audience Feedback?
Audience Research Music Video
In the evaluation stage of my music video, I have carried out some research into what my target audience think of my music video.
I chose to gain primary data by interviewing a male aged 25 called Matt who is a professional in the production of music videos. The method I used to interview him was straight forward, as I screened the music video to him in a room and after he had watched it all the way through, I proceeded to ask him a series of questions based around what I felt worked well in the video, what might need improving, and to get the response and opinions from someone who I would call a member of my target audience of my music video. From this I would make notes and document his answers for future referral, analysis and interpretation. The responses I received I could then take with me to my next editing session and amend to better suit my audience and improve the quality and appeal of my music video.
The questions I asked, the answers he gave and how I used his answers to adapt and improve my music video are as follows:
1. How effective did you find the transitions and effects?
>Matt: “I found the cross fades to be smooth, which I think works well in collaboration with the music you are using”.
I used cross fades with the part of the video that involved showing the Polaroid photo and the shot of the couple walking together. It was important that this was smooth and that both shots were equally visible to keep to the mood of the film and help the audience understand the representation of the state of the couple between each of the shots. The affirmation from Matt telling me that my transitions and effects have worked well, I have accomplished my intentions here.
2. Was the narrative clear to follow?
>Matt “The narrative is very much film like and seems like you have set out to shoot it in this way, so yes it was clear to follow, it fits the linear narrative well”.
Matt here has stated that he believes that the narrative in my music video has been shot as a linear narrative. I am glad he has picked up on my intended narrative structure as I have shot the narrative progressively to make it easier for my audience to follow the story line and how it is affecting each character simultaneously. As Matt has found my video easy to follow, then this should mean that further people of my target audience will also find it easy to follow for the ease of their viewing and understanding.
3. Was the contrast too sharp?
>Matt: “In places, the close up shots focused on the lips in particular need less contrasting because they look pixelated”.
I asked this question to Matt because in my own opinion I felt that some shots in my music video such as shots of the lounge where my male character is situated did look too pixelated and sharp. In actual fact, Matt felt that the close up shot of my male character’s lips was the most poorly edited in terms of contrast. From his comments, I have since lessened the amount of contrast edited onto the shot, which makes the picture look softer, natural but however darker. I am glad that Matt did agree with me on this as it shows that my target audience are engaging in the media that they watch.
4. Were shots angled well, and were they varied?
>Matt: “Photo on the window is strong. You have used a good range of shots which adds to audience appeal and makes it look more interesting. The shots of the birds were good but perhaps needed shots that were focused in closer to the birds, from the perspective of looking up at the sky”.
From Matt’s answer to this question, he has reassured me that the range of shots in my music video are varied, and also given a reason as to how it strengthens audience appeal and the video appeal. This is always a good sign from my point of view as the producer because my audience are telling me ways in which I have been successful to sustain their attention and interest. Matt has given me an example of a shot that achieved this, that being the shot at the end of the video with the 2 halves of the Polaroid pressed up against the window. I composed this shot to sustain their attention by giving them more than one thing to focus on. By this, I mean how I used the image of the photo and the writing on the back, and how my audience have to simultaneously make connections between each half of the Polaroid, and think about how this affects the state of the relationship of the couple in question.
Matt has proposed I revise the shots of the birds to show them closer up. He hasn’t given me a reason why he thinks this shot could be successful in my music video, but in my opinion it could be either for appeal or to understand the role that the birds play in my music video clearer; to which the reason to this should become apparent in question 5.
5. How noticeable were connotations and metaphors within the composition of the shots and music video?
>Matt: The connotations and metaphors you have used, such as the black and white, the birds and signposts with the sun are relevant to the lyrics, which make them more noticeable and clear. Connotations in a story like narrative tend to work better when they are subtle rather than obvious”.
By connotations and metaphors in this question, I am relating to the use of the birds and their connection to the relationship in metaphor, and the connotations of how sign posts pointing to the sun represent a point of view, and if two sign arrows pointed towards the sun, then both characters was on the same page.
In Matt’s response, he has picked up on my intentional use of black and white, the use of birds and signposts with the sun. This is positive as he has picked up on the use of this, and although he has not stated to me if he has understood what they mean, he has not said that he hasn’t understood them either. Hopefully by him not mentioning if he understood or not, that he has understood, especially as he has related them to the lyrics, which would relate these techniques I have used to the familiarity of the lyrics.
Matt has also hinted to me that with the linear narrative I am using, subtle techniques work better than obvious techniques. To affirm this, I had another look at my music video and switched the order of the establishing shots that include the birds to make sure they follow in a logical sense, for easier familiarity for the audience.
6. Was the use of black and white effective?
>Matt: “The use of colour, and lack of colour in this case (in relation to the use of black and white) is good, it serves the story well and shows contrast between the characters. It also helped me as the audience understand the mood of the video, being on a minor note rather than major and when the focus switches between these”.
From Matt’s response to this question, this is definitely positive feedback to assure me that my use of black and white has been understood by my audience. I used this technique to show negativity and contrast between my characters and the state of the relationship, so when the relationship is healthy there is colour. Matt has successfully received this intention as he has informed me that as an audience lack of colour has helped him understand the mood of the music video when it is on a minor note. He also tells me that he understands the switch between the major and minor tone of the video. Therefore he is interpreting successfully that the use of colour is the major and lack of colour is the minor. He has quoted back at me that this technique shows contrast between characters, which is a good sign as this was one of my intentions when I applied this effect.
7. Does the video withhold audience attention, or when does it lose interest?
>Matt: Your video has a good replay value, such as returning back to the production shots of the male character playing guitar, and the divide of the photo”.
I asked this question so I can understand what works well in my music video to keep my audience’s attention and help them understand the progression of the music video.
Matt has told me here that the use of replay value and the divide of the photo have worked well to achieve this. It is positive that he has picked up on devices I intentionally used to achieve this, with the use of the photo and production shots. I referred back to the Polaroid photo to establish the state of the relationship, that the characters are still divided and also how each character is thinking about what the photo reminds them of; the first shot with the argument and when their relationship and the photo becomes divided.
The use of guitar playing shots I felt helped further establish the music element of the video (as a music video), but also how the male character is further expressing his emotions and feelings through the correct instrumentation of the track (guitar) and through the lyrics of the song, using lip sync to make it obvious this is the case and how I repeated the use of the close up shot of the male characters lips to show this.
8. Does the pace of the editing suitable; is it in time with the music?
>Matt: “Most of the time this is good but I would advise you to check the pace of your shots during the instrumental at the end as the pace appears inconsistent, and also you should make sure your music video ends on the last beat of the song.
I have been advised with the feedback to this question to revise the pace of the music video towards the end. What Matt has picked up on here is that the pace of my editing is inconsistent with the timing of the track and also the previous tempo applied earlier on in the video.
From this comment, I progressed to look at my music video and found that the music video did not end on the last beat accurately. I extended the track to re-cut the audio file successfully and fade the track out at the end to make the ending appear more natural and smoother. I also progressed to use such shots as the male character walking out of the shot to the left when passing a group if friends as I felt this had an element of action from the group of friends that I found to be displeasing to the audience, and the shortening of this shot made it easier to keep a similar length to the shots at the end as I found when after shortening the previous shot I explained, the shot had moved to be more in time with the music track.
Part of working as a group meant that another member of my group received audience feedback from asking questions to our target audience on a social networking site (a similar approach I took when gaining feedback on my digipak work). A group containing C1 and C2 demographic including male and female participants was constructed, in the format of a forum so each participant could view the video and other responses that had been made and if they chose to, debate between each other what worked well and what needed improving.
A noticable debate between these participants were how they interpreted our representation of birds in the music video and what they meant. For example, when one interpreted them as "Metaphors for each character", when another thought the birds referred to "The artist using his lyrics to move both characters onto a parallel trail of thought, towards the sun representing this". It is interesting that the birds were interpreted in this way because both interpretations are along the right lines, showing we have successfully broadcasted the messages we wanted to send, although some work might have to be done to get the exact message running through each participant's minds.
A point in the video that the audience strongly agreed on however was that the shot at 1 minute 30 lasted too long and contained unneccessary movements by extra characters in the background. From this we were able to detect this shot distracted the audience, made them uncomfortable and interrupted their satisfaction of the experience of our music video. Since this comment we have moved to cut out the unneccessary movements of the extras, and once screened again the audience preferred our ammendment to the original.
On the 16th March 2010 we received news on our artist's Myspace page of a comment he had posted there including a link to our music video uploaded onto Youtube and a comment of one word "Interesting! =D". This is great news as it shows the vastness in range of how a site such as Youtube distributes it's content to recipients, and hopefully with the inclusion of the link in the social networking site of Myspace, will accumulate our video of more viewers and enhance the reputation of our work and gain the artist and us feedback on a wider scale through a potential target audience, this time dictated by the artist and who he sees as his ideal audience. This is placing empowerment of our content out of our hands and into his allowing him to freely distribute our work and our connotations of his work if he agrees with them and sees them appropriate. The comment itself we chose to interpret as positive because of the smiley face he put after the word interesting. This we thought told us he is interested into how his audience have used his media and also our interpretations of his work.
Digipak feedback
I thought it would be vital to gain audience feedback for my digipak to get an understanding of my target audience’s opinions of my work.
I set a method of using the social networking site of Facebook to group together hand picked individuals (5 male and 5 female for even gender responses and larger numbers strengthens the accuracy of my responses to discover patterns in their answers) that fit into the parameters of my ideal target audience, and from this I sent them a web link to my blog where I have uploaded a video that screens all my print work of still images and a video of the digipak being opened. I chose this method because it was simple to group together a set of individuals and as the artist who I was designing the digipak to promote has a profile on social networking site Myspace; I could assume that his target audience would have a social networking profile on such a website. This method of gaining feedback also allows me to diversify from how I gained feedback for my music video and this time use technology to document and distribute my work and allow comments to be posted back to me. Another advantage of this method is that my planning for this project I have also documented on my blog, which should help my audience understand how I created my print productions, what had influenced me and my intentions of my work.
A female of my target audience posted a comment that stated that my work flows well, however my CD slide was boring. It is good that my work flows well because this means my video is made in a way that helps my audience understand my work well, what each piece of my work is and how it is related to the other slides of the video. To link with her comment that my CD slide (where the CD will be held) is boring, another participant of my audience stated that I should inform them of further detail of the slide, “Point out that the CD pane isn't just blank and has a hole in it because that isn't completely clear.” This shows that I have been unclear in the detail I have given my audience about what this slide involves, and the disadvantage of using graphic images in my video that do not show these dimensions. To improve this part of the video, I could involve real still images of photography taken with a digital camera and use them either embedded in the video or embedded separate from the video in the same post to help my audience understand what the physical product looks like as an end product, and from these they will be able to look at the video of my print work and understand where I have applied these graphic images on my digipak.
This female of my group also informed me that “I really like that fact that you have put in a video of you opening the case as it makes it interactive”. The effect of using a video to show how the product opens is that the audience can imagine themselves opening the digipak. This shows the success of using a video to show my target audience how the real product works, and stronger emphasizes the need to input photos of the real product onto this blog post to boost this understanding of the real product, this at the moment appears to be the main improvement I will need to do to successfully amend and improve this blog post of my print productions.
In contrast to the need of real still images of my digipak, a male participant of my audience group mentions that “The digipak looked very professional and well made”. As I have only included graphical images at this point, the use of technology and graphic images appears to have made the project appear sharper and more professional to this member of my audience, which seems to make my project more appealing to him.
Another male member of my audience commented on my magazine advert, as he thought “It is simple but impacts”. I kept my magazine advert simple by using a larger size graphic image of a Polaroid from my digipak and maintained the same font, when also using the same background graphic to look like paper. A female member of my audience had picked up on my repetitious use of these to maintain a theme throughout my print productions. She replied that “You have tied the Digipak and the advert together really well by keeping the themes and images the same”. My print productions therefore are coherent and follow a set theme and style that combine these productions together in an obvious and successful way that my audience take a liking to.
Another reason why I used the same style between the two was because of genre. A male participant of my audience picked up on this and said “The fonts, background, images etc all really suit you genre, target audience and artist”. Again this shows coherence between each of my productions have been successful with consistent use of Polaroid images, photography and paper graphic background. Also this member of my audience agrees that it does indeed suit my audience well, and as he is part of this audience, it shows my productions were well received by this audience. It is important that this member of my audience agrees that it suits the artist well, as this quote brands my promotion of my artist as successful, positive, and accurate portrayal of his image and style.
In the evaluation stage of my music video, I have carried out some research into what my target audience think of my music video.
I chose to gain primary data by interviewing a male aged 25 called Matt who is a professional in the production of music videos. The method I used to interview him was straight forward, as I screened the music video to him in a room and after he had watched it all the way through, I proceeded to ask him a series of questions based around what I felt worked well in the video, what might need improving, and to get the response and opinions from someone who I would call a member of my target audience of my music video. From this I would make notes and document his answers for future referral, analysis and interpretation. The responses I received I could then take with me to my next editing session and amend to better suit my audience and improve the quality and appeal of my music video.
The questions I asked, the answers he gave and how I used his answers to adapt and improve my music video are as follows:
1. How effective did you find the transitions and effects?
>Matt: “I found the cross fades to be smooth, which I think works well in collaboration with the music you are using”.
I used cross fades with the part of the video that involved showing the Polaroid photo and the shot of the couple walking together. It was important that this was smooth and that both shots were equally visible to keep to the mood of the film and help the audience understand the representation of the state of the couple between each of the shots. The affirmation from Matt telling me that my transitions and effects have worked well, I have accomplished my intentions here.
2. Was the narrative clear to follow?
>Matt “The narrative is very much film like and seems like you have set out to shoot it in this way, so yes it was clear to follow, it fits the linear narrative well”.
Matt here has stated that he believes that the narrative in my music video has been shot as a linear narrative. I am glad he has picked up on my intended narrative structure as I have shot the narrative progressively to make it easier for my audience to follow the story line and how it is affecting each character simultaneously. As Matt has found my video easy to follow, then this should mean that further people of my target audience will also find it easy to follow for the ease of their viewing and understanding.
3. Was the contrast too sharp?
>Matt: “In places, the close up shots focused on the lips in particular need less contrasting because they look pixelated”.
I asked this question to Matt because in my own opinion I felt that some shots in my music video such as shots of the lounge where my male character is situated did look too pixelated and sharp. In actual fact, Matt felt that the close up shot of my male character’s lips was the most poorly edited in terms of contrast. From his comments, I have since lessened the amount of contrast edited onto the shot, which makes the picture look softer, natural but however darker. I am glad that Matt did agree with me on this as it shows that my target audience are engaging in the media that they watch.
4. Were shots angled well, and were they varied?
>Matt: “Photo on the window is strong. You have used a good range of shots which adds to audience appeal and makes it look more interesting. The shots of the birds were good but perhaps needed shots that were focused in closer to the birds, from the perspective of looking up at the sky”.
From Matt’s answer to this question, he has reassured me that the range of shots in my music video are varied, and also given a reason as to how it strengthens audience appeal and the video appeal. This is always a good sign from my point of view as the producer because my audience are telling me ways in which I have been successful to sustain their attention and interest. Matt has given me an example of a shot that achieved this, that being the shot at the end of the video with the 2 halves of the Polaroid pressed up against the window. I composed this shot to sustain their attention by giving them more than one thing to focus on. By this, I mean how I used the image of the photo and the writing on the back, and how my audience have to simultaneously make connections between each half of the Polaroid, and think about how this affects the state of the relationship of the couple in question.
Matt has proposed I revise the shots of the birds to show them closer up. He hasn’t given me a reason why he thinks this shot could be successful in my music video, but in my opinion it could be either for appeal or to understand the role that the birds play in my music video clearer; to which the reason to this should become apparent in question 5.
5. How noticeable were connotations and metaphors within the composition of the shots and music video?
>Matt: The connotations and metaphors you have used, such as the black and white, the birds and signposts with the sun are relevant to the lyrics, which make them more noticeable and clear. Connotations in a story like narrative tend to work better when they are subtle rather than obvious”.
By connotations and metaphors in this question, I am relating to the use of the birds and their connection to the relationship in metaphor, and the connotations of how sign posts pointing to the sun represent a point of view, and if two sign arrows pointed towards the sun, then both characters was on the same page.
In Matt’s response, he has picked up on my intentional use of black and white, the use of birds and signposts with the sun. This is positive as he has picked up on the use of this, and although he has not stated to me if he has understood what they mean, he has not said that he hasn’t understood them either. Hopefully by him not mentioning if he understood or not, that he has understood, especially as he has related them to the lyrics, which would relate these techniques I have used to the familiarity of the lyrics.
Matt has also hinted to me that with the linear narrative I am using, subtle techniques work better than obvious techniques. To affirm this, I had another look at my music video and switched the order of the establishing shots that include the birds to make sure they follow in a logical sense, for easier familiarity for the audience.
6. Was the use of black and white effective?
>Matt: “The use of colour, and lack of colour in this case (in relation to the use of black and white) is good, it serves the story well and shows contrast between the characters. It also helped me as the audience understand the mood of the video, being on a minor note rather than major and when the focus switches between these”.
From Matt’s response to this question, this is definitely positive feedback to assure me that my use of black and white has been understood by my audience. I used this technique to show negativity and contrast between my characters and the state of the relationship, so when the relationship is healthy there is colour. Matt has successfully received this intention as he has informed me that as an audience lack of colour has helped him understand the mood of the music video when it is on a minor note. He also tells me that he understands the switch between the major and minor tone of the video. Therefore he is interpreting successfully that the use of colour is the major and lack of colour is the minor. He has quoted back at me that this technique shows contrast between characters, which is a good sign as this was one of my intentions when I applied this effect.
7. Does the video withhold audience attention, or when does it lose interest?
>Matt: Your video has a good replay value, such as returning back to the production shots of the male character playing guitar, and the divide of the photo”.
I asked this question so I can understand what works well in my music video to keep my audience’s attention and help them understand the progression of the music video.
Matt has told me here that the use of replay value and the divide of the photo have worked well to achieve this. It is positive that he has picked up on devices I intentionally used to achieve this, with the use of the photo and production shots. I referred back to the Polaroid photo to establish the state of the relationship, that the characters are still divided and also how each character is thinking about what the photo reminds them of; the first shot with the argument and when their relationship and the photo becomes divided.
The use of guitar playing shots I felt helped further establish the music element of the video (as a music video), but also how the male character is further expressing his emotions and feelings through the correct instrumentation of the track (guitar) and through the lyrics of the song, using lip sync to make it obvious this is the case and how I repeated the use of the close up shot of the male characters lips to show this.
8. Does the pace of the editing suitable; is it in time with the music?
>Matt: “Most of the time this is good but I would advise you to check the pace of your shots during the instrumental at the end as the pace appears inconsistent, and also you should make sure your music video ends on the last beat of the song.
I have been advised with the feedback to this question to revise the pace of the music video towards the end. What Matt has picked up on here is that the pace of my editing is inconsistent with the timing of the track and also the previous tempo applied earlier on in the video.
From this comment, I progressed to look at my music video and found that the music video did not end on the last beat accurately. I extended the track to re-cut the audio file successfully and fade the track out at the end to make the ending appear more natural and smoother. I also progressed to use such shots as the male character walking out of the shot to the left when passing a group if friends as I felt this had an element of action from the group of friends that I found to be displeasing to the audience, and the shortening of this shot made it easier to keep a similar length to the shots at the end as I found when after shortening the previous shot I explained, the shot had moved to be more in time with the music track.
Part of working as a group meant that another member of my group received audience feedback from asking questions to our target audience on a social networking site (a similar approach I took when gaining feedback on my digipak work). A group containing C1 and C2 demographic including male and female participants was constructed, in the format of a forum so each participant could view the video and other responses that had been made and if they chose to, debate between each other what worked well and what needed improving.
A noticable debate between these participants were how they interpreted our representation of birds in the music video and what they meant. For example, when one interpreted them as "Metaphors for each character", when another thought the birds referred to "The artist using his lyrics to move both characters onto a parallel trail of thought, towards the sun representing this". It is interesting that the birds were interpreted in this way because both interpretations are along the right lines, showing we have successfully broadcasted the messages we wanted to send, although some work might have to be done to get the exact message running through each participant's minds.
A point in the video that the audience strongly agreed on however was that the shot at 1 minute 30 lasted too long and contained unneccessary movements by extra characters in the background. From this we were able to detect this shot distracted the audience, made them uncomfortable and interrupted their satisfaction of the experience of our music video. Since this comment we have moved to cut out the unneccessary movements of the extras, and once screened again the audience preferred our ammendment to the original.
On the 16th March 2010 we received news on our artist's Myspace page of a comment he had posted there including a link to our music video uploaded onto Youtube and a comment of one word "Interesting! =D". This is great news as it shows the vastness in range of how a site such as Youtube distributes it's content to recipients, and hopefully with the inclusion of the link in the social networking site of Myspace, will accumulate our video of more viewers and enhance the reputation of our work and gain the artist and us feedback on a wider scale through a potential target audience, this time dictated by the artist and who he sees as his ideal audience. This is placing empowerment of our content out of our hands and into his allowing him to freely distribute our work and our connotations of his work if he agrees with them and sees them appropriate. The comment itself we chose to interpret as positive because of the smiley face he put after the word interesting. This we thought told us he is interested into how his audience have used his media and also our interpretations of his work.
Digipak feedback
I thought it would be vital to gain audience feedback for my digipak to get an understanding of my target audience’s opinions of my work.
I set a method of using the social networking site of Facebook to group together hand picked individuals (5 male and 5 female for even gender responses and larger numbers strengthens the accuracy of my responses to discover patterns in their answers) that fit into the parameters of my ideal target audience, and from this I sent them a web link to my blog where I have uploaded a video that screens all my print work of still images and a video of the digipak being opened. I chose this method because it was simple to group together a set of individuals and as the artist who I was designing the digipak to promote has a profile on social networking site Myspace; I could assume that his target audience would have a social networking profile on such a website. This method of gaining feedback also allows me to diversify from how I gained feedback for my music video and this time use technology to document and distribute my work and allow comments to be posted back to me. Another advantage of this method is that my planning for this project I have also documented on my blog, which should help my audience understand how I created my print productions, what had influenced me and my intentions of my work.
A female of my target audience posted a comment that stated that my work flows well, however my CD slide was boring. It is good that my work flows well because this means my video is made in a way that helps my audience understand my work well, what each piece of my work is and how it is related to the other slides of the video. To link with her comment that my CD slide (where the CD will be held) is boring, another participant of my audience stated that I should inform them of further detail of the slide, “Point out that the CD pane isn't just blank and has a hole in it because that isn't completely clear.” This shows that I have been unclear in the detail I have given my audience about what this slide involves, and the disadvantage of using graphic images in my video that do not show these dimensions. To improve this part of the video, I could involve real still images of photography taken with a digital camera and use them either embedded in the video or embedded separate from the video in the same post to help my audience understand what the physical product looks like as an end product, and from these they will be able to look at the video of my print work and understand where I have applied these graphic images on my digipak.
This female of my group also informed me that “I really like that fact that you have put in a video of you opening the case as it makes it interactive”. The effect of using a video to show how the product opens is that the audience can imagine themselves opening the digipak. This shows the success of using a video to show my target audience how the real product works, and stronger emphasizes the need to input photos of the real product onto this blog post to boost this understanding of the real product, this at the moment appears to be the main improvement I will need to do to successfully amend and improve this blog post of my print productions.
In contrast to the need of real still images of my digipak, a male participant of my audience group mentions that “The digipak looked very professional and well made”. As I have only included graphical images at this point, the use of technology and graphic images appears to have made the project appear sharper and more professional to this member of my audience, which seems to make my project more appealing to him.
Another male member of my audience commented on my magazine advert, as he thought “It is simple but impacts”. I kept my magazine advert simple by using a larger size graphic image of a Polaroid from my digipak and maintained the same font, when also using the same background graphic to look like paper. A female member of my audience had picked up on my repetitious use of these to maintain a theme throughout my print productions. She replied that “You have tied the Digipak and the advert together really well by keeping the themes and images the same”. My print productions therefore are coherent and follow a set theme and style that combine these productions together in an obvious and successful way that my audience take a liking to.
Another reason why I used the same style between the two was because of genre. A male participant of my audience picked up on this and said “The fonts, background, images etc all really suit you genre, target audience and artist”. Again this shows coherence between each of my productions have been successful with consistent use of Polaroid images, photography and paper graphic background. Also this member of my audience agrees that it does indeed suit my audience well, and as he is part of this audience, it shows my productions were well received by this audience. It is important that this member of my audience agrees that it suits the artist well, as this quote brands my promotion of my artist as successful, positive, and accurate portrayal of his image and style.
Tuesday, 16 March 2010
ARTIST FEEDBACK
On the 16th of March 2010 at 10:27am I viewed the Myspace page of Chris Cohen, our artist of our song we used for our music video:
http://blogs.myspace.com/chriscohen27
He had posted a link to our music video we uploaded to Youtube and commented this saying "Interesting!". This is good as we have gained feedback from him, and we have contacted him informing him of our intention to upload our final version onto Youtube and asking him of his opinions. WATCH THIS SPACE!...
http://blogs.myspace.com/chriscohen27
He had posted a link to our music video we uploaded to Youtube and commented this saying "Interesting!". This is good as we have gained feedback from him, and we have contacted him informing him of our intention to upload our final version onto Youtube and asking him of his opinions. WATCH THIS SPACE!...
Wednesday, 10 March 2010
BFI Semenar Notes
Teenage Riot! - Youth, media and collective identity.
How do macro factors affect politics/community?-"Who you are" and how are you unique?
-"What makes you similar" (with others)
-What social groups do you belong to?
Identity and Media
-Jacques Lacan (pyschoanalyst)
-The mirror stage, when a child begins to develop their identity
-What is our relationship with what is on screen?
-What pleasures do they offer? "Helping us define who we are"
-IDENTIFICATION (who we are)
-ASPIRATION (what we want to be)
Influence of Media
-How could they affect us?
-"Beaming an opinion"
-Do we consider representations accurate? "Closure and solidity"
-Inaccurate or distorted portrayals create a distorted identity = False aspiration and beliefs
-Draw confidence in what you are or aren't
Identification/Aspiration could inspire escapism?
Constructing the Teenager
-Youth culture emerges
-19th century "Bowery Boys" of New York
-Own slang, dress code, musical tastes etc (creating a recognisable culture)
-First time entertainment and fashion industries targeted youth groups
1900-1940
-400% rise in school enrollment in USA
-"Peer culture" (making comparisons)
-Magazine industries targeting insecurities of adolescence
-1940 WWii = Labour demand = young people with disposable income
1945-60 'Birth of the Teen'
-Economic potential obvious (market of the future)
-Youth similtaneously represented as "Prosperous and liberated future" and "A culture of moral decline"
-First sign of adult culture dichotomous image of teenagers
-Film example: The Wild One
1950's Rock 'N' Roll culture
-Not trying to fit in to adult mainstream (rebellion)
-Happy to rebel, first indication of Generation Gap
-In values and lifestyles
Adult Hegemony?
-Adult world supplied the culture, targeted it, constructed it
-Dominant social group, keeps an oppressed group in subservent position by making them feel this position is normal or desirable
-Adult mainstream exploited the image of the 'rebel teen'
-Sold to teenagers as aspiration
-Sold to adults as fear
James Dean - An Accurate Portrayal of Youth?
"Rebel without a cause"
-First celeb to capture dissonance of youth
-Delinquent behaviour
-Reinforce adult fear
-Not a 'Bad Boy'
-Confused, sensitive, frustrated
-Empathy/desire
"Live fast die young" = start of adults fetishing youth?
1960-70 Subculture to counter culture
-Next generation of teens cynical about commercial exploitation of youth
-Rebellion chimes with social upheaval
-Civil rights, feminism, anti-vietnam "Rebels now have a cause"
-Resistant to marketing and consumerism, wanted to make world better
-Film example: Easy Rider
Punk and Hip Hop
-Punk = reaction against optimism of hippies and more synical of mainstream
-Not just rebellious or anti-consumerist. Also anti-establishment
-Punk = aesthetic and political rebellion
-Hip Hop = dealing with relaity of poverty and racist oppression
-Film example: Scratch
Recent article: www.guardian.co.uk/music/2010/feb/25/emo-pop-tribes-mods-punks
Adult Fetishisation of Youth
-Who is the intended audience?
-Adult obsession with youth (why?)
Women in Journalism Reports
-"Am I Bovvered?" Concensor sexualised images in media, beauty, appearance
-"Hoodies or Altar Boys" over half the stories about youth crime in regional/national papers.
-"Yobs" mentioned 591 times
-"Thugs" mentioned 254 times
-"Sick" 119 times
-"Feral" 96 times
-Positive representations of youth used when they are dead, or killed by other teens
-Images from media 85% afraid of "stereotype"
Internalised Stereotypes
-Self = fulfilling prophicies (representations accepted by search for solidarity and collective identity)
-Film examples: Kidulthood, Harry Brown
-9-14 yr olds spend $300bn per year in US (companies keen to target youth)
-Morgan Stanley "Youth = vanguard of digital revolution"
-Intern opinions made front cover of magazines
-Film example: American Beauty (about adult idolisation and fetishism of youth)
Why?
-Nostalgia (never appreciated youth when they were younger ages)
-Empathy (Adults frustrated with lives to rebel again)
-Envy (Teens don't have a career, relationship, financial burdens etc)
-Envious of adolescent sex drive
-Freedom
Accurate or Idolised?
-'Juno' (do kids really talk like this?)
-Misfits/Skins (Do kids really have these lifestyles?
-Aimed at teens or adults audiences?
-Film example: Ferris Buellers Day Off (in Chicago 1988, more adult audience?)
How do macro factors affect politics/community?-"Who you are" and how are you unique?
-"What makes you similar" (with others)
-What social groups do you belong to?
Identity and Media
-Jacques Lacan (pyschoanalyst)
-The mirror stage, when a child begins to develop their identity
-What is our relationship with what is on screen?
-What pleasures do they offer? "Helping us define who we are"
-IDENTIFICATION (who we are)
-ASPIRATION (what we want to be)
Influence of Media
-How could they affect us?
-"Beaming an opinion"
-Do we consider representations accurate? "Closure and solidity"
-Inaccurate or distorted portrayals create a distorted identity = False aspiration and beliefs
-Draw confidence in what you are or aren't
Identification/Aspiration could inspire escapism?
Constructing the Teenager
-Youth culture emerges
-19th century "Bowery Boys" of New York
-Own slang, dress code, musical tastes etc (creating a recognisable culture)
-First time entertainment and fashion industries targeted youth groups
1900-1940
-400% rise in school enrollment in USA
-"Peer culture" (making comparisons)
-Magazine industries targeting insecurities of adolescence
-1940 WWii = Labour demand = young people with disposable income
1945-60 'Birth of the Teen'
-Economic potential obvious (market of the future)
-Youth similtaneously represented as "Prosperous and liberated future" and "A culture of moral decline"
-First sign of adult culture dichotomous image of teenagers
-Film example: The Wild One
1950's Rock 'N' Roll culture
-Not trying to fit in to adult mainstream (rebellion)
-Happy to rebel, first indication of Generation Gap
-In values and lifestyles
Adult Hegemony?
-Adult world supplied the culture, targeted it, constructed it
-Dominant social group, keeps an oppressed group in subservent position by making them feel this position is normal or desirable
-Adult mainstream exploited the image of the 'rebel teen'
-Sold to teenagers as aspiration
-Sold to adults as fear
James Dean - An Accurate Portrayal of Youth?
"Rebel without a cause"
-First celeb to capture dissonance of youth
-Delinquent behaviour
-Reinforce adult fear
-Not a 'Bad Boy'
-Confused, sensitive, frustrated
-Empathy/desire
"Live fast die young" = start of adults fetishing youth?
1960-70 Subculture to counter culture
-Next generation of teens cynical about commercial exploitation of youth
-Rebellion chimes with social upheaval
-Civil rights, feminism, anti-vietnam "Rebels now have a cause"
-Resistant to marketing and consumerism, wanted to make world better
-Film example: Easy Rider
Punk and Hip Hop
-Punk = reaction against optimism of hippies and more synical of mainstream
-Not just rebellious or anti-consumerist. Also anti-establishment
-Punk = aesthetic and political rebellion
-Hip Hop = dealing with relaity of poverty and racist oppression
-Film example: Scratch
Recent article: www.guardian.co.uk/music/2010/feb/25/emo-pop-tribes-mods-punks
Adult Fetishisation of Youth
-Who is the intended audience?
-Adult obsession with youth (why?)
Women in Journalism Reports
-"Am I Bovvered?" Concensor sexualised images in media, beauty, appearance
-"Hoodies or Altar Boys" over half the stories about youth crime in regional/national papers.
-"Yobs" mentioned 591 times
-"Thugs" mentioned 254 times
-"Sick" 119 times
-"Feral" 96 times
-Positive representations of youth used when they are dead, or killed by other teens
-Images from media 85% afraid of "stereotype"
Internalised Stereotypes
-Self = fulfilling prophicies (representations accepted by search for solidarity and collective identity)
-Film examples: Kidulthood, Harry Brown
-9-14 yr olds spend $300bn per year in US (companies keen to target youth)
-Morgan Stanley "Youth = vanguard of digital revolution"
-Intern opinions made front cover of magazines
-Film example: American Beauty (about adult idolisation and fetishism of youth)
Why?
-Nostalgia (never appreciated youth when they were younger ages)
-Empathy (Adults frustrated with lives to rebel again)
-Envy (Teens don't have a career, relationship, financial burdens etc)
-Envious of adolescent sex drive
-Freedom
Accurate or Idolised?
-'Juno' (do kids really talk like this?)
-Misfits/Skins (Do kids really have these lifestyles?
-Aimed at teens or adults audiences?
-Film example: Ferris Buellers Day Off (in Chicago 1988, more adult audience?)
Tuesday, 9 March 2010
Jacques Lacan - 'The Mirror Stage'
Jacques Lacan was a psychoanalysist who is famous for his mirror stage theory. He described the mirror stage as "Formative of the function of the / as revealed in psychoanalytic experience". In much simpler terms, the mirror stage was inspired by the creation of the Teenager era, and was about the time when a young individual would look at themselves in the mirror and start to crave change to their identity to make them unique or suit themselves to a collective identity, and invoking mental and image developments to the young individual.
Lacan proceeded further to explain how he believed that youth would go on to build an ego via objectification, and how the result of this ego was adoption of dissent of emotions and reality, aiming to avoid alienation through what i believe is the new ego formed and hoping to acquire the reverse of alienation, and find acceptance, confidence and security (perhaps through a collective identity or individual identity, what the individual would associate themselves with or assume themselves part of).
The idea of a mirror image could influence youth within the media that they choose to watch and associate themselves with. They must see a theme or icon within the texts they associate themselves with to create aspiration, familiarity and security that they can develop a connection to as this is what would reinforce, affirm and secure these aspects. Drawing aspiration from this could develop a stronger interest and the individual will strive to discover more media texts along similar lines which features similar themes to those of before, matching their new found identity.
Lacan proceeded further to explain how he believed that youth would go on to build an ego via objectification, and how the result of this ego was adoption of dissent of emotions and reality, aiming to avoid alienation through what i believe is the new ego formed and hoping to acquire the reverse of alienation, and find acceptance, confidence and security (perhaps through a collective identity or individual identity, what the individual would associate themselves with or assume themselves part of).
The idea of a mirror image could influence youth within the media that they choose to watch and associate themselves with. They must see a theme or icon within the texts they associate themselves with to create aspiration, familiarity and security that they can develop a connection to as this is what would reinforce, affirm and secure these aspects. Drawing aspiration from this could develop a stronger interest and the individual will strive to discover more media texts along similar lines which features similar themes to those of before, matching their new found identity.
Monday, 8 March 2010
Case Study: White Girl
'White Girl' is a social realist film that tackles family, social class and ethnicity issues, and is challenging the condition and representation of what it means to be British' and the identity of youth in a British family.
'White Girl' presents a disfunctional family who aim to escape a controlling father figure (who is also their only source of income). They relocate to a different geographical region in England (Bradford) which introduces an unfamiliar culture and religion to the British family.
The contrast between how the British family and the Muslim religion are represented is very apparent. The Muslims are shown to be respectful of their family, the posessions they own, their parents wishes, and are peaceful. The Biritish family clash with this as although they help look after each other (scenes involving Leah making her younger siblings breakfast) they shout and swear at each other, there is constant drug use within the family (unlike the Muslim families) and the mother is very unreliable and needs her mother to help her out (whereas the Muslim family have an authoritarian in a father figure, something the British family escaped as their father figure was abusive of his role). The Muslims therefore show a very strong sense of community and obedience. The British family however abuse the family community, with each parent being neglectful of their duties and using the kids such as Leah's brother to benefit themselves and get them things (the young boy getting his dad items from the local shops). Representations of Britishness in this case is very negative and shows a typical C2 demographic family to be disfunctional and uncohesive with one another, not a strong community.
The impact subsequently on a youth character in 'White Girl', Leah, is ultimately escapism as she begins to adopt the Muslim religion, beliefs and way of life. The scarf (hijab) is the first sign that she is beginning to "escape" Britishness and shape her own identity. By gaining this scarf, and by reading books at school, Leah begins to discover acceptance by being welcomed into the local school and freedom from her teacher to read books about the Muslim community, security through collective identity and foundations of commandments written within the religion and classes at school that teach these, and aspiration by being given books to further teach herself about Muslim life and frequent visits to the Mosque. A prime example of aspiration in Leah's case is the Hijab; by her wearing it she shows neglect towards her British family and safety within the Muslim heritage. The hijab therefore becoming a symbol of acceptance, security and aspiration. All together this is moving her away from the alienation she had been experiencing in her own British family.
Leah's mother however is resentful to her moving away from Britishness, and instantly becomes fearful when Leah wears the scarf within the British family community, this fear could be down too Leah losing her authentic Britishness (her roots) and losing respect for her Britishness, yet also being fearful of Leah's new found valuation of elements of life the mother has rejected in the past, education.
Leah's mother rows with her teachers against Leah's will. This is a key example of adult fear. Through this fear the community within the British family shows that family is a valued concept to Britishness and straying from the roots of what makes us British is not acceptable, in this demographic class at least. However, the fear could also stem from previous educational failure of the mother herself, and how she does not have an education and did not care about her own education, yet how Leah is not at least gaining an authentic British education. British pride and aspects of racism, and perhaps the clashing of beliefs and teachings through geographical region are the resulting factors in this case.
Adult fear is further established during the scene that the hijab is forcably removed from Leah, even though she is stubborn to fight to keep her new identity and what the hijab stands for. She ends up being shut out of her house until she accepts her true British heritage. Here I felt that the door was a representation towards the border divide of a country, where inside the house is Britain, and outside this house and any other house in that region represented the Muslim community as a foreign world and country in its own right. Leah's refusal to walk through the door of Britishness further establishes her neglect of her British roots and rejection of how her social class represents Britain.
Subsequently Leah builds her new Britain around the Mosque, and invites her mother along to visit the Mosque. The rituals of washing her face, feet and hands shown before they enter the Mosque resounded the possibility of this being Leah's initiation or induction to her Britain, and you can only proceed further inside the Mosque and reach the centre of her Britain if you cross the border and comply by washing her hands, feet and face also.
The mother herself has a low class job as a cleaner, and acquires constant drug abuse of cigarettes and a powerful drinking problem. The possible reasons that the mother turned to the drink in the first place is some what suggestive to her using it as a comforter and empowerer to balance her duties for the family and to balance family, work, and social responsibilities mentally.
It is the drug abuse that Leah targets and believes is destroying the family (cans of drink are consistantly displayed throughout the film within reaching distance of the mother whilst in Bradford), and it could be from this that envokes the escapism that Leah has, to get away from her British tag and gain new status and identity under Muslim life. Her happiness and security of this new identity is confirmed by the scene that shows her working and reciting quotes from the Quran towards her father during an argument, which ultimately drives him away.
I feel representations of Britishness through "White Girl" show pride of our roots and of our family and collective identity of where we are from. The insecurities shown in this film lie underneath this, how conflict within family can be swayed by unreliable parentage, drug abuse, lack of respect, and striving to fulfill our aspirations which in this film's case was Leah's education and the conflict being how Leah's mother did not have one and is resentful for this.
Sunday, 7 March 2010
Question 2: How effective is the combination of the main product and ancillary texts?
The combination of my main and ancillary texts hinge on the key of three key factors; the guitar, photography and the notepad with handwritten lyrics.
It is important to have consistency throughout the productions as this is what connects them together, and such connotations and themes linking together. For my production I have aimed to keep an original and first hand approach from the artist, which I believe I have kept flowing by using the guitar to represent inspiration and a way of expression, in all of my media products. The intended audience therefore can identify this guitar as a reoccuring theme throughout each media text and can connect them together and realise such connotations as expression and inspiration from the guitar and further establish further connotations by how each texts expands in its unique way (for example the sketchbook approach, which is kept consistant by the use of the notepad in the music video. The words on the pages (such as the lyrics pane with the lyrics written as they are in the video and inclusion of A4 paper on this pane) allow the audience to realise the connection between the two and gain the same intended representation and connotations from them). It is for these reasons that makes consistency and coherence important to combine my media texts.
The guitar was used in the music video as a way for the male character to express his thoughts and feelings, and as previously discussed as a way of inspiration and comfort. By using the guitar in the ancillary texts, these are continued into the presentation of these ancillary texts. I expanded these connotations in the digipak by the reoccurence of photography that featured key lighting and also with the inclusion of the artist playing the guitar. This reinforces the significance of the guitar and shows how the guitar conveys the artists words (for example, each note played on the guitar as a word), thus encouraging the target audience to be take inspiration for his expression (and perhaps be expressive themselves as the guitar may be a common feature of the target audiences lifestyle, through their guitars) and be comforted by his music and lyrics. The expansion of the book cover I felt could represent the guitar case, how the guitar is stored and how there is a message to be told by playing it. This connotes to my intention of how the cover of the book acts as a guitar case, and how by reading the words on the page you learn, you're inspired and you take comfort, which is just like reading a story and by listening to Cohen's music. This is the link between the two.
From previous research into the music genre of acoustic rock, other texts from this genre centralise around a key element of the genre (usually musically influenced), in this case, this would be the guitar. This helps me to establish conventions of the genre and connect with my target audience (the guitar perhaps being a common interest to make this connection). The guitar itself is a humanly played instrument. Therefore I chose the notepad and pen in the music video to adopt the human touch approach that I was aiming for to give the impression that just like the notes from the guitar, the lyrics from the pen stemmed from Chris Cohen himself. This made it easier to influence my approach on my ancillary text to design the sketchbook approach. It allows these lyrics to also be written down just like on the notepad, and allows me to use a handwritten font to continue this theme through my ancillary texts, and keep another theme of originality flowing and become further established.
A second key factor shared between all texts for coherence is photography. In the music video a photograph of the two main characters (the couple) was a centrepiece within the video that was always referred back to that helped the music video flow and has familiarity. By using photography and Polaroid graphics in the ancillary texts I feel helps with this coherence in the video (of which is also helped by handwritten font that was written on the photos in the video and as flourishes on the ancillary texts). Another reason why Polaroid establishes a personalised point of view is the point of view of Chris Cohen in this instance. The point of view in the music video is of the male character, whom that Chris Cohen broadcasts his opinions and beliefs through by the lyrics he conveys in the song (by lip sync in the video of the male character). By broadcasting his messages through ulterior personnel (being the characters in the video - which effectively act as figureheads in his place), it gives the effect that the male character in the video is that of the target audience, who adopt Chris Cohen’s view point in this way. Which means that the photography and Polaroid that feature in the ancillary texts should mean the target audience adopting what Chris Cohen sees, for them self through this personalised human touch approach I have gone for. This also adds coherence again through repetition of themes.
It is important to have consistency throughout the productions as this is what connects them together, and such connotations and themes linking together. For my production I have aimed to keep an original and first hand approach from the artist, which I believe I have kept flowing by using the guitar to represent inspiration and a way of expression, in all of my media products. The intended audience therefore can identify this guitar as a reoccuring theme throughout each media text and can connect them together and realise such connotations as expression and inspiration from the guitar and further establish further connotations by how each texts expands in its unique way (for example the sketchbook approach, which is kept consistant by the use of the notepad in the music video. The words on the pages (such as the lyrics pane with the lyrics written as they are in the video and inclusion of A4 paper on this pane) allow the audience to realise the connection between the two and gain the same intended representation and connotations from them). It is for these reasons that makes consistency and coherence important to combine my media texts.
The guitar was used in the music video as a way for the male character to express his thoughts and feelings, and as previously discussed as a way of inspiration and comfort. By using the guitar in the ancillary texts, these are continued into the presentation of these ancillary texts. I expanded these connotations in the digipak by the reoccurence of photography that featured key lighting and also with the inclusion of the artist playing the guitar. This reinforces the significance of the guitar and shows how the guitar conveys the artists words (for example, each note played on the guitar as a word), thus encouraging the target audience to be take inspiration for his expression (and perhaps be expressive themselves as the guitar may be a common feature of the target audiences lifestyle, through their guitars) and be comforted by his music and lyrics. The expansion of the book cover I felt could represent the guitar case, how the guitar is stored and how there is a message to be told by playing it. This connotes to my intention of how the cover of the book acts as a guitar case, and how by reading the words on the page you learn, you're inspired and you take comfort, which is just like reading a story and by listening to Cohen's music. This is the link between the two.
From previous research into the music genre of acoustic rock, other texts from this genre centralise around a key element of the genre (usually musically influenced), in this case, this would be the guitar. This helps me to establish conventions of the genre and connect with my target audience (the guitar perhaps being a common interest to make this connection). The guitar itself is a humanly played instrument. Therefore I chose the notepad and pen in the music video to adopt the human touch approach that I was aiming for to give the impression that just like the notes from the guitar, the lyrics from the pen stemmed from Chris Cohen himself. This made it easier to influence my approach on my ancillary text to design the sketchbook approach. It allows these lyrics to also be written down just like on the notepad, and allows me to use a handwritten font to continue this theme through my ancillary texts, and keep another theme of originality flowing and become further established.
A second key factor shared between all texts for coherence is photography. In the music video a photograph of the two main characters (the couple) was a centrepiece within the video that was always referred back to that helped the music video flow and has familiarity. By using photography and Polaroid graphics in the ancillary texts I feel helps with this coherence in the video (of which is also helped by handwritten font that was written on the photos in the video and as flourishes on the ancillary texts). Another reason why Polaroid establishes a personalised point of view is the point of view of Chris Cohen in this instance. The point of view in the music video is of the male character, whom that Chris Cohen broadcasts his opinions and beliefs through by the lyrics he conveys in the song (by lip sync in the video of the male character). By broadcasting his messages through ulterior personnel (being the characters in the video - which effectively act as figureheads in his place), it gives the effect that the male character in the video is that of the target audience, who adopt Chris Cohen’s view point in this way. Which means that the photography and Polaroid that feature in the ancillary texts should mean the target audience adopting what Chris Cohen sees, for them self through this personalised human touch approach I have gone for. This also adds coherence again through repetition of themes.
Friday, 26 February 2010
What Makes Us British?
Here are a few signifiers that I believe indicates our creates collective identity of Britishness:
-Royal Family
-London/Blackpool/Oxford/Cambridge
-Flags (St George)
-Landmarks such as Buckingham Palace, London Eye and Big Ben
-The Beckhams, Mr Bean, Kate Winslett
-Tea
-Fish and Chips
-DM Boots
-Dr Who
-Working Title Film
-Beatles
-Terraced Houses
-James Bond 007
-Farmers
-Red Letter Boxes
-Harry Potter
-Heinz Beans
-Brit Pop
-The "V" Sign
-Bonfire Night
-SGT Pepper
-Rolls Royce
-London Underground
-Peak District
-Sherlock Holmes
-Monty Python
-Hunting (foxes)
-Glastonbury
-Sports Teams and Leagues, Wimbledon
-Eastenders
-Stone Henge
-Shakespeare
-Pubs
-Black Cabs
-BBC
-Royal Family
-London/Blackpool/Oxford/Cambridge
-Flags (St George)
-Landmarks such as Buckingham Palace, London Eye and Big Ben
-The Beckhams, Mr Bean, Kate Winslett
-Tea
-Fish and Chips
-DM Boots
-Dr Who
-Working Title Film
-Beatles
-Terraced Houses
-James Bond 007
-Farmers
-Red Letter Boxes
-Harry Potter
-Heinz Beans
-Brit Pop
-The "V" Sign
-Bonfire Night
-SGT Pepper
-Rolls Royce
-London Underground
-Peak District
-Sherlock Holmes
-Monty Python
-Hunting (foxes)
-Glastonbury
-Sports Teams and Leagues, Wimbledon
-Eastenders
-Stone Henge
-Shakespeare
-Pubs
-Black Cabs
-BBC
Question 4: How Did You Use New Media Technologies In The Construction And Research, Planning and Evaluation Stages?
New media technologies are those that have been mainly introduced from the later years of the 20th century, therefore meaning such technologies as computers, internet, cameras, and CD/DVD’s. Being a student of this era, all of these technologies I have had access to in creating my media products.
In the construction stage of my magazine advert, that solely relied on digital technologies such as computers, software (photoshop), the internet and websites to discover and apply new fonts, and cameras to upload photography. Photoshop I have used to merge my photography together and manipulate it by cropping and erasing to gain my final product. This new media has allowed me to acquire polished digital images that can be printed and converted into a hard copy product, and by keeping them digital jpeg files, convertible into creating a video of my final work. Multi-skill tools such as these have allowed my work to be convertible into different formats to serve different purposes (distributable online as images or videos) as well as printable, allowing me to gain audience feedback and distribute in different ways to maximize my audience. Another multi-skilled software program I have used in the production of my music video this time is Audacity. I have learnt sound manipulation skills from my studies of music technology, and therefore am familiar with such skills as normalising, cutting, and editing frequencies to make the sound appear smoother and as if it has not been manipulated at all. I have been able to take the original sound file and cut out segments of the track and quietening frequencies to gradually fade the song back in smoothly once cutting some frequencies out, to shorten the song to fit the time brief and suit the amount of visual footage I have shot for the video. Without these tools to manipulate the track smoothly the quality of the soundtrack would have been changed poorly and would have decreased the quality of the sound file, or if it wasn’t manipulated at all, the song could have been too long to fit the brief. The sound file was flexible and easily imported into premiere elements. This has allowed me to merge the sound track to visual footage to create a video, something without the software would have been unachievable and difficult to convincingly use the lip sync technique with visual and music track, unless the sound track was played during the shooting of the footage, which by keeping the sync of the music track and fluidity of the music track over many shots very difficult.
All this new media technology together definitely shows amateurism, by spending minimum amounts of money to gain industry standard equipment or subsidiary equipment that allows me to be creative and shoot my own productions, edit them, and broadcast the final product. This can also be empowering for a consumer like myself, as it allows freedom to go and recreate real media texts, and voice their own opinions and beliefs by challenging existing conventions of media texts, and broadcasting them to an audience. This is placing empowerment onto the media audiences and providing them with tools to be creative and multi-skilled with the combination of technology to shoot, edit, broadcast and document. One of the ways it could get broadcasted is via the internet.
The internet can be exploited as a community, which I found useful during the evaluation stage when gaining audience feedback on my media products. This allowed me to publish my work and pinpoint my target audience, who can make their comments about what they see. This approach has a sense of the “broadcast yourself” slogan used by Youtube, which in itself does exactly what it says. By gaining audience feedback, my target audiences (by whom I could selectively identify through social networking sites on individual values of my ideal target audience, and was recreated through this) have informed me of what worked well in my music video and what I need to improve on. Now I know that the narrative of the music video makes sense, but to shorten the length of some shots to keep the tempo consistent.
I have become part of this online community by creating a blog page. This is where I have been documenting my work throughout the year. I have found exploiting this new media advantageous during the research and planning stages as just like social networking, opinions can be shared on the work I have done, but also is a convenient place to store all my work and amend it later on. The planning I have done can be viewed in a logical order, and I can show progression of my thoughts and how each stage of planning affects one another in the build up to creating each media project. Technology, such as scanners have helped this planning stage by converting my drawings of storyboards into jpeg files to make illustrations referable to what I have explained through text to back up my ideas. Being part of this community has helped my research by being able to view others bloggers’ pages and being able to take inspiration and comment their posts, and also insert passages from real media texts into my own blog posts, such as images and uploading videos.
In the construction stage of my magazine advert, that solely relied on digital technologies such as computers, software (photoshop), the internet and websites to discover and apply new fonts, and cameras to upload photography. Photoshop I have used to merge my photography together and manipulate it by cropping and erasing to gain my final product. This new media has allowed me to acquire polished digital images that can be printed and converted into a hard copy product, and by keeping them digital jpeg files, convertible into creating a video of my final work. Multi-skill tools such as these have allowed my work to be convertible into different formats to serve different purposes (distributable online as images or videos) as well as printable, allowing me to gain audience feedback and distribute in different ways to maximize my audience. Another multi-skilled software program I have used in the production of my music video this time is Audacity. I have learnt sound manipulation skills from my studies of music technology, and therefore am familiar with such skills as normalising, cutting, and editing frequencies to make the sound appear smoother and as if it has not been manipulated at all. I have been able to take the original sound file and cut out segments of the track and quietening frequencies to gradually fade the song back in smoothly once cutting some frequencies out, to shorten the song to fit the time brief and suit the amount of visual footage I have shot for the video. Without these tools to manipulate the track smoothly the quality of the soundtrack would have been changed poorly and would have decreased the quality of the sound file, or if it wasn’t manipulated at all, the song could have been too long to fit the brief. The sound file was flexible and easily imported into premiere elements. This has allowed me to merge the sound track to visual footage to create a video, something without the software would have been unachievable and difficult to convincingly use the lip sync technique with visual and music track, unless the sound track was played during the shooting of the footage, which by keeping the sync of the music track and fluidity of the music track over many shots very difficult.
All this new media technology together definitely shows amateurism, by spending minimum amounts of money to gain industry standard equipment or subsidiary equipment that allows me to be creative and shoot my own productions, edit them, and broadcast the final product. This can also be empowering for a consumer like myself, as it allows freedom to go and recreate real media texts, and voice their own opinions and beliefs by challenging existing conventions of media texts, and broadcasting them to an audience. This is placing empowerment onto the media audiences and providing them with tools to be creative and multi-skilled with the combination of technology to shoot, edit, broadcast and document. One of the ways it could get broadcasted is via the internet.
The internet can be exploited as a community, which I found useful during the evaluation stage when gaining audience feedback on my media products. This allowed me to publish my work and pinpoint my target audience, who can make their comments about what they see. This approach has a sense of the “broadcast yourself” slogan used by Youtube, which in itself does exactly what it says. By gaining audience feedback, my target audiences (by whom I could selectively identify through social networking sites on individual values of my ideal target audience, and was recreated through this) have informed me of what worked well in my music video and what I need to improve on. Now I know that the narrative of the music video makes sense, but to shorten the length of some shots to keep the tempo consistent.
I have become part of this online community by creating a blog page. This is where I have been documenting my work throughout the year. I have found exploiting this new media advantageous during the research and planning stages as just like social networking, opinions can be shared on the work I have done, but also is a convenient place to store all my work and amend it later on. The planning I have done can be viewed in a logical order, and I can show progression of my thoughts and how each stage of planning affects one another in the build up to creating each media project. Technology, such as scanners have helped this planning stage by converting my drawings of storyboards into jpeg files to make illustrations referable to what I have explained through text to back up my ideas. Being part of this community has helped my research by being able to view others bloggers’ pages and being able to take inspiration and comment their posts, and also insert passages from real media texts into my own blog posts, such as images and uploading videos.
Question 1: In What Ways Does Your Media Product Use, Develop or Challenge Forms And Conventions of Real Media Texts?
I have formed my media texts around genre, other real media texts and conventions used within these, and deciding whether to use them, challenge them, or develop them further.
I have used genre by taking two individual genres and used elements both to condense my genre down into a sub-genre of alternative rock, and acoustic. By doing this, it has made it simpler to merge conventions of each genre together to allow flexibility in the narrative and representation of my video for inserting ideas that have influenced me from real media texts. Also by doing this I will hopefully expand my target audience as there will be similarities between these two genres that will attract both audiences to my texts.
Acoustic and alternative rock share similar codes and representations. Through instrumentation, they are alike in guitars and pianos, and by dress sense they both wear jeans, shirts and jackets.
.
I have found this is the case by taking reference from the music video by ‘OneRepublic – All The Right Moves’. This video does verge more towards the alternative rock side of my sub-genre I created, but does share similarities with the acoustic genre. Aspects that makes ‘All The Right Moves’ more alternative rock is that it features piano and stringed instruments within the music, and in dress sense the artists of the band wear jeans and a jacket, just like how I costumed my characters in my music video to connect to our audience that will have similar dress senses and connect to them through familiarity and identity in this way. However, the similarities with the acoustic genre are the use of instrumentation again being a piano and especially guitars as I used a guitar in our music video. This shows I have used genre in my music video through instrumentation and clothes to build a connection and familiarity of identity to my audience, which I believe to be conventional which should increase the strength of the music video as they may see my music video as shooting their reality and my music video should appear appealing and more successful with my target audience.
In the way that OneRepublic shot this video, I took note of performance shots that might be typical to this genre of music.
. So such close up diagonal shots of the guitar looking from the arm of the guitar whilst on stage and I proceeded to use in our music video, to be conventional to this sub-genre.
To further research into conventional shot angles and performance shots of this genre I referenced ‘City and Colour – Comin’ Home’.
. This video uses close up shots of the artist’s mouth and acoustic guitar and the diagonal shot of the guitar
similar to which is used by OneRepublic. This further establishes that these uses of performance shots are conventional to my sub-genre, and that the use of instrumentation and making the instrument a key focus within this is also conventional.
Just like in my music video, it uses colour to show the mood of the situation and characters. City and Colour use black and white when the couple are apart, and switch focus between each of the characters, and use of black and white shows a negative mood and divide between the characters,
which I used for my music video to conventionally use lack of colour as showing the divide of the relationship and emptiness each character feels without the other and when the relationship is dysfunctional. When listening closely to the lyrics “Will it be my heart or will it be his?” this is placing the power of decision into the hands of the female character, which I have done in our music video by making the female character return to the artist to make or break the relationship. Therefore it could be conventional to place the power of a relationship into the hands of the female character in a music video of this genre, assuming it is the male character who has made the mistake and singing for another chance, which in my music video the male character is. This shows I have further enhanced genre in my music video and making my music video more conventional by using shot types that are used in real media texts with the hope of making my video just as attractive as current media texts and keeping it interesting for my audience to watch. Using colour and lack of colour to form connotations appears conventional and subtle enough to blend well and work with the messages I am sending through my video of the health of my characters’ relationship.
Another media text I referenced was the CD cover of Snow Patrol – Eyes Open. This CD cover also has aspects of the sub-genre I have created and aspects that I have taken inspiration from. In regards to genre, the design is artistic with use of colour, pattern, and silhouette.
.The silhouette itself is linked to the single that features on the CD called ‘Eyes Open’, and this shows how the silhouette of the couple is the key focus of the CD cover. Therefore I felt as the lyrics to ‘If You Only Knew’ revolved around the same theme of a couple and love, yet also I feel that the use of a silhouette takes the identity out of the people who the couple consists of. So the approach I took to create my digipak was to use the use of lyrics and key lighting of the guitar to try and use the silhouette of the guitar and use key lighting to emphasise this as how the guitar has the orientation of the audience, and posing an enigma of how they personalise this and relate it to themselves, like how the silhouette of a couple representing love by contrasting colour highlights the silhouette just like key lighting, and poses the same enigma to their audience.
To help plot the narrative of our music video, I referenced a music video that contained the music of my sub-genre and was set how our linear narrative would be intended. ‘This video was Death Cab For Cutie – Meet Me On The Equinox’.
Aspects of the video that I felt worked well and drew inspiration from were how originally the music video was shot to promote a film. This meant that they edited the content together in the video progressively and story like leading up to the point where a new equilibrium is formed or where the story takes a turning point. This I felt suits the narrative of my story identically, and just like this music video, I followed the story from one characters perspective and point of view, yet switching between character to show change and progression. This music video focuses on the female character and reverts back to the male character at the point where he steps out into the sun;
the characters meet at this point of the video. In our music video, where the two characters meet in the video is also at the ending. This shows that this use of narrative is conventional to the genre how we intended it to be.
I have used genre by taking two individual genres and used elements both to condense my genre down into a sub-genre of alternative rock, and acoustic. By doing this, it has made it simpler to merge conventions of each genre together to allow flexibility in the narrative and representation of my video for inserting ideas that have influenced me from real media texts. Also by doing this I will hopefully expand my target audience as there will be similarities between these two genres that will attract both audiences to my texts.
Acoustic and alternative rock share similar codes and representations. Through instrumentation, they are alike in guitars and pianos, and by dress sense they both wear jeans, shirts and jackets.
.I have found this is the case by taking reference from the music video by ‘OneRepublic – All The Right Moves’. This video does verge more towards the alternative rock side of my sub-genre I created, but does share similarities with the acoustic genre. Aspects that makes ‘All The Right Moves’ more alternative rock is that it features piano and stringed instruments within the music, and in dress sense the artists of the band wear jeans and a jacket, just like how I costumed my characters in my music video to connect to our audience that will have similar dress senses and connect to them through familiarity and identity in this way. However, the similarities with the acoustic genre are the use of instrumentation again being a piano and especially guitars as I used a guitar in our music video. This shows I have used genre in my music video through instrumentation and clothes to build a connection and familiarity of identity to my audience, which I believe to be conventional which should increase the strength of the music video as they may see my music video as shooting their reality and my music video should appear appealing and more successful with my target audience.
In the way that OneRepublic shot this video, I took note of performance shots that might be typical to this genre of music.
. So such close up diagonal shots of the guitar looking from the arm of the guitar whilst on stage and I proceeded to use in our music video, to be conventional to this sub-genre. To further research into conventional shot angles and performance shots of this genre I referenced ‘City and Colour – Comin’ Home’.
. This video uses close up shots of the artist’s mouth and acoustic guitar and the diagonal shot of the guitar
similar to which is used by OneRepublic. This further establishes that these uses of performance shots are conventional to my sub-genre, and that the use of instrumentation and making the instrument a key focus within this is also conventional.Just like in my music video, it uses colour to show the mood of the situation and characters. City and Colour use black and white when the couple are apart, and switch focus between each of the characters, and use of black and white shows a negative mood and divide between the characters,
which I used for my music video to conventionally use lack of colour as showing the divide of the relationship and emptiness each character feels without the other and when the relationship is dysfunctional. When listening closely to the lyrics “Will it be my heart or will it be his?” this is placing the power of decision into the hands of the female character, which I have done in our music video by making the female character return to the artist to make or break the relationship. Therefore it could be conventional to place the power of a relationship into the hands of the female character in a music video of this genre, assuming it is the male character who has made the mistake and singing for another chance, which in my music video the male character is. This shows I have further enhanced genre in my music video and making my music video more conventional by using shot types that are used in real media texts with the hope of making my video just as attractive as current media texts and keeping it interesting for my audience to watch. Using colour and lack of colour to form connotations appears conventional and subtle enough to blend well and work with the messages I am sending through my video of the health of my characters’ relationship.Another media text I referenced was the CD cover of Snow Patrol – Eyes Open. This CD cover also has aspects of the sub-genre I have created and aspects that I have taken inspiration from. In regards to genre, the design is artistic with use of colour, pattern, and silhouette.
.The silhouette itself is linked to the single that features on the CD called ‘Eyes Open’, and this shows how the silhouette of the couple is the key focus of the CD cover. Therefore I felt as the lyrics to ‘If You Only Knew’ revolved around the same theme of a couple and love, yet also I feel that the use of a silhouette takes the identity out of the people who the couple consists of. So the approach I took to create my digipak was to use the use of lyrics and key lighting of the guitar to try and use the silhouette of the guitar and use key lighting to emphasise this as how the guitar has the orientation of the audience, and posing an enigma of how they personalise this and relate it to themselves, like how the silhouette of a couple representing love by contrasting colour highlights the silhouette just like key lighting, and poses the same enigma to their audience. To help plot the narrative of our music video, I referenced a music video that contained the music of my sub-genre and was set how our linear narrative would be intended. ‘This video was Death Cab For Cutie – Meet Me On The Equinox’.
Aspects of the video that I felt worked well and drew inspiration from were how originally the music video was shot to promote a film. This meant that they edited the content together in the video progressively and story like leading up to the point where a new equilibrium is formed or where the story takes a turning point. This I felt suits the narrative of my story identically, and just like this music video, I followed the story from one characters perspective and point of view, yet switching between character to show change and progression. This music video focuses on the female character and reverts back to the male character at the point where he steps out into the sun;
the characters meet at this point of the video. In our music video, where the two characters meet in the video is also at the ending. This shows that this use of narrative is conventional to the genre how we intended it to be.
How Do We Create Our Identity?
http://www.findyourtribe.co.uk is a website where you answer questions about yourself and any interests you have, and the website will place you under a social group or "tribe". I found this website intersting as the questions that it asked you are Britishly orientated, asking for example if you listen or watch the BBC, asking what british ethnic group you are from, asking your favourite celebrity (all that are stated are British), and cycles through typical British culture and hobbies revolving the internet, education, sport, music and tv, going out, drugs, magazines to name a few. I believe this website has British beliefs and politics to shape a British identity, and help me to understand sub cultures within Britishness to which we identify with and idolise to build our own individuality and unique qualities. I visited the website twice and got mosher the first time and townie the second.
So how do we personalise our humanity? The following are a few aspects that I believe we build our identity through:
-Status/Class
-Culture
-Childhood
-Friends/Family
-Life Experiences
-Fashion (clothes, hair etc)
-Ethnicity and their core values and cultures
-Technology (Mobiles, iPod, PC, video games)
-Assets (Cars, Jewellery, House)
-Media Interests
-Books/Magazines
-Social scenes and town/village you're from
-Colours
-Language/Lingo/Accents
-Religion
-Sexual Orientation
-Education
-Money/Wealth
-Shops
It is worth considering how the media communicate these values, and merge them into collective identity. For example, this can revolve around music genres and the lifestyles individuals lead within them and who others draw inspiration to within this genre, what values do they convey that influence others to be alike?
To put a spin on Britishness, what values does the media target to restore national pride, disgust, antagonism or ambivalence? And thinking about how a protagonist being either an insider or outsider of these communities react to such representations.
So how do we personalise our humanity? The following are a few aspects that I believe we build our identity through:
-Status/Class
-Culture
-Childhood
-Friends/Family
-Life Experiences
-Fashion (clothes, hair etc)
-Ethnicity and their core values and cultures
-Technology (Mobiles, iPod, PC, video games)
-Assets (Cars, Jewellery, House)
-Media Interests
-Books/Magazines
-Social scenes and town/village you're from
-Colours
-Language/Lingo/Accents
-Religion
-Sexual Orientation
-Education
-Money/Wealth
-Shops
It is worth considering how the media communicate these values, and merge them into collective identity. For example, this can revolve around music genres and the lifestyles individuals lead within them and who others draw inspiration to within this genre, what values do they convey that influence others to be alike?
To put a spin on Britishness, what values does the media target to restore national pride, disgust, antagonism or ambivalence? And thinking about how a protagonist being either an insider or outsider of these communities react to such representations.
Collective Identity and Britishness
Collective identity is about how contemporary media represent nations, regions, ethnic/social collective groups in different ways.
For example this could be how 'This is England' represents Britishness and the condition of England at that time. However, the film was set further in the past than when it was shot. It would have been shot based around past beliefs of that era, however it would of been shot also with a modern day understanding of those beliefs. In shooting the past you are shooting the present. Therefore it is important to understand what has changed over time in England, understanding what it means to be British and how we create our collective identity; so identifying what makes us individual and unique from others and how do we do this, but most importantly what unites us as a country?
It could be important to compare past media text to the new wave. For example what had changed from such a film as 'Saturday Night Sunday Morning', to 'This is England' but what has also stayed the same.
Possible angles that could be approached to compare these texts could be through representations of youth, social class, gender, ethnicity, community, education, family, wealth, and symbolism and signifiers of Britishness and culture.
For example this could be how 'This is England' represents Britishness and the condition of England at that time. However, the film was set further in the past than when it was shot. It would have been shot based around past beliefs of that era, however it would of been shot also with a modern day understanding of those beliefs. In shooting the past you are shooting the present. Therefore it is important to understand what has changed over time in England, understanding what it means to be British and how we create our collective identity; so identifying what makes us individual and unique from others and how do we do this, but most importantly what unites us as a country?
It could be important to compare past media text to the new wave. For example what had changed from such a film as 'Saturday Night Sunday Morning', to 'This is England' but what has also stayed the same.
Possible angles that could be approached to compare these texts could be through representations of youth, social class, gender, ethnicity, community, education, family, wealth, and symbolism and signifiers of Britishness and culture.
Narrative Theory and Theorists
Narrative is all about the order in which a story is told or how a plot unwinds.
There are different types of narrative; linear, circular, loop, flashback and point of view to name a few.
The style of the narrative is important, whether it contains use of archetypes and representations. All together narrative helps to keep an audience alert during the ongoing of a media text.
(Reference-Memento and 24)
Take the human mind for example. It needs narrative to put the components into order, and make sense of them, to connect aspects and make interpretations, and seek a beginning, middle, and ending.
Constructing meaning within a narrative is designed on making a connection to the audience. Narratives can be based on such things as experiences, reality and previous texts, and ordered in a way that they expand from a previous text and to create the next. This creates intertextuality and creates a link to the audience.
Equilibrium is about how the narrative order and balance fluxuates and changes.
Tzvetan Todorov had a theory connected with equilibrium. He believed that every media text must have an equilibrium, disequilibrium and new equilibrium.
(Reference-The Third Man)
Vladimir Propp identified 8 character roles and 31 narrative functions. These characters can be applied to many narratives through TV and film (often linked with heroes and villains).
Levi Strauss introduced the theory of binary opposition. Binary opposition are sets of opposite values that guide the structure of a media text.
Here are some examples:
Known : Unknown
Good : Evil
Past : Present
Therefore it would appear that the ending can only exist when the conflict between the two values are resolved and one reigns superior versus the other.
Roland Barthes came up with a theory about how audiences bring different psychological, sociological and cultural baggage to a media text. It would be through this baggage that would determine if the audience would make a connection to a media text and their ability to follow this narrative and plot in certain ways.
There are different types of narrative; linear, circular, loop, flashback and point of view to name a few.
The style of the narrative is important, whether it contains use of archetypes and representations. All together narrative helps to keep an audience alert during the ongoing of a media text.
(Reference-Memento and 24)
Take the human mind for example. It needs narrative to put the components into order, and make sense of them, to connect aspects and make interpretations, and seek a beginning, middle, and ending.
Constructing meaning within a narrative is designed on making a connection to the audience. Narratives can be based on such things as experiences, reality and previous texts, and ordered in a way that they expand from a previous text and to create the next. This creates intertextuality and creates a link to the audience.
Equilibrium is about how the narrative order and balance fluxuates and changes.
Tzvetan Todorov had a theory connected with equilibrium. He believed that every media text must have an equilibrium, disequilibrium and new equilibrium.
(Reference-The Third Man)
Vladimir Propp identified 8 character roles and 31 narrative functions. These characters can be applied to many narratives through TV and film (often linked with heroes and villains).
Levi Strauss introduced the theory of binary opposition. Binary opposition are sets of opposite values that guide the structure of a media text.
Here are some examples:
Known : Unknown
Good : Evil
Past : Present
Therefore it would appear that the ending can only exist when the conflict between the two values are resolved and one reigns superior versus the other.
Roland Barthes came up with a theory about how audiences bring different psychological, sociological and cultural baggage to a media text. It would be through this baggage that would determine if the audience would make a connection to a media text and their ability to follow this narrative and plot in certain ways.
Audience Research Assessment Sheet
This is the assessment sheet for my audience research: The music industry from an audience's mperspective. The conclusions I drew from this project helped me vastly in the planning for my music video.
Independant research into an aspect of the music industry: Assessment Sheet
This is the Assessment Sheet of my work that I completed into my independant research into an aspect of the music industry, of which I chose to investigate how Apple is expanding to meet the changing demands of the music industry.
Wednesday, 24 February 2010
Original Photography
This posts shows the original photography i used to create my Digipak.
I held a 20 minute session in the CNS auditorium with a technician and the artist, to take photos within a setting exactly as an auditorium to give the feel the artist was playing towards an audience, with musical features within the composition of the shots such as a piano and guitar (elements of the music track).
The use of a warm colour pallet and key lighting helped recreate a similar feel that I would be using in my sketchbook approach to my digipak. It allowed the key lighting to focus on key elements such as himself and the guitar, whilst also giving the illusion he is playing directly to the audience, just like the effect of the digipak and the audience directly reading the messages inside like a book from the artist.
The style of clothing that the artist was wearing is similar to those of the male character in the music video, thus fitting in nicely into the social class of my target audience who would wear similar clothing to this, and allowing consistency between each of the media texts.
I held a 20 minute session in the CNS auditorium with a technician and the artist, to take photos within a setting exactly as an auditorium to give the feel the artist was playing towards an audience, with musical features within the composition of the shots such as a piano and guitar (elements of the music track).
The use of a warm colour pallet and key lighting helped recreate a similar feel that I would be using in my sketchbook approach to my digipak. It allowed the key lighting to focus on key elements such as himself and the guitar, whilst also giving the illusion he is playing directly to the audience, just like the effect of the digipak and the audience directly reading the messages inside like a book from the artist.
The style of clothing that the artist was wearing is similar to those of the male character in the music video, thus fitting in nicely into the social class of my target audience who would wear similar clothing to this, and allowing consistency between each of the media texts.
Saturday, 20 February 2010
Ancillary Tasks Video
This post shows you a video composed together of my digipak featuring graphics of each pane and a short clip showing how the digipak is opened. Also in the video is my magazine advert. I have included in this post photos of the hardcopy of the digipak how it looks as the finished product. 
FINAL PRINT VIDEO
I revised the previous video after audience feedback to make it clearer on what my CD pane includes as my audience were uncertain why this pane appeared almost blank. Also, I have changed my wording on the biography pane to promote my artist and give a little more background information about him.
FINAL PRINT VIDEO
I revised the previous video after audience feedback to make it clearer on what my CD pane includes as my audience were uncertain why this pane appeared almost blank. Also, I have changed my wording on the biography pane to promote my artist and give a little more background information about him.
Tuesday, 19 January 2010
Thursday, 7 January 2010
CD cover "Notebook" idea
With the idea of Chris Cohen's lyrics telling a story to "Comfort and inspire", the prospect of designing a cover as a book is an appealing idea, and it can have a personal touch in many ways to create an indexical CD cover.
-idea of taking my original photography files from the computer to then placing them as photos (printed off on print paper) to tape into a sketchbook themed booklet. I feel this idea would be appealing to the audience and can have a feeling of creativity and purpose.
-“Flourishes” can be added for the "personal touch" from the artist and could be such as notes that I can hand write that would appear that the artist himself has done. This could be in relation to any tributes, photographs, lyrics.
-Front page of the booklet inside could have a front cover of an old notebook being labelled “Chris Cohen – If you only knew”.
-Could also use a picture of a hand opening the front cover of the book as the front cover of the booklet. This could encourage the audience to look inside the booklet.
The Notebook itself could be of a brown leather type patterm, that Kaiser Chiefs have used for "Employment", showing therefore that the CD cover idea would prove popular with the audience of our similar genre as "Employment" has sold around 3 million copies.
With photos stuck into the book, this could show pride by the artist in the photo and what it represents, which could be explained by a flourish of a note next to it, and to connect this experience and what it represents with the audience.
NOTE: If I choose to use the outside cover of a book (hard cover) to use as the cover theme of the CD I should think about either handwritten fonts or old-fashioned/medieval fonts. These fonts could either give a feeling of wisdom (medieval) or personal and original (handwritten).
To produce this cover, i have bought a sketchbook with the desirable cover. Within this, i could stick in edited photography through photoshop to fold out, or to use graphics such as a page with a blank photo frame to photoshop a photo into the blank space and stick into the book. This way, i will still have the authentic look to my CD cover and also by doing this, this would show i can use IT skills to produce my CD cover, and should allow my CD cover to be more appealing and polished and access higher marks.
By sticking pages of the book together, i can create the desired number of panes and if possible, embed the CD into the pages. I feel this would be very attractive and creative idea to my audience.
-idea of taking my original photography files from the computer to then placing them as photos (printed off on print paper) to tape into a sketchbook themed booklet. I feel this idea would be appealing to the audience and can have a feeling of creativity and purpose.
-“Flourishes” can be added for the "personal touch" from the artist and could be such as notes that I can hand write that would appear that the artist himself has done. This could be in relation to any tributes, photographs, lyrics.
-Front page of the booklet inside could have a front cover of an old notebook being labelled “Chris Cohen – If you only knew”.
-Could also use a picture of a hand opening the front cover of the book as the front cover of the booklet. This could encourage the audience to look inside the booklet.
The Notebook itself could be of a brown leather type patterm, that Kaiser Chiefs have used for "Employment", showing therefore that the CD cover idea would prove popular with the audience of our similar genre as "Employment" has sold around 3 million copies.
With photos stuck into the book, this could show pride by the artist in the photo and what it represents, which could be explained by a flourish of a note next to it, and to connect this experience and what it represents with the audience.
NOTE: If I choose to use the outside cover of a book (hard cover) to use as the cover theme of the CD I should think about either handwritten fonts or old-fashioned/medieval fonts. These fonts could either give a feeling of wisdom (medieval) or personal and original (handwritten).
To produce this cover, i have bought a sketchbook with the desirable cover. Within this, i could stick in edited photography through photoshop to fold out, or to use graphics such as a page with a blank photo frame to photoshop a photo into the blank space and stick into the book. This way, i will still have the authentic look to my CD cover and also by doing this, this would show i can use IT skills to produce my CD cover, and should allow my CD cover to be more appealing and polished and access higher marks.
By sticking pages of the book together, i can create the desired number of panes and if possible, embed the CD into the pages. I feel this would be very attractive and creative idea to my audience.
Wednesday, 6 January 2010
Music Video Planning: Location Ian's House
This location is set at my house in Norwich. The location in these pictures will be used for the section of the video that the male character spends at his house, and the outro when the female characters visits the female character at his house.
I have altered the saturation of the pictures of the location into black and white as this location will be presented in black and white in the video, to experiment what the location will look like from that perspective. The only time this location will be presented in colour is during the outro, which will feature picture #5.
The reasons we chose this location are because of convenience, audience appeal and status.
The convenience of the location was due to our shooting budget. We did not have the money to acquire anything more upper class to make the video more "lush and classy" if these are the right words to use. It was therefore easier to shoot the video using a location of the class which we live in ourselves and model the characters to this mise-en-scene. By using these locations, which are of everyday class C people, we should be able to impose a sense of familiarity with our target audience which will make it easier for them to place themselves into the shoes of our character and "identify" with them (more than they would with a character in a mansion wearing expensive jewellery for example).
As a setting and mise-en-scene of the music video, we wanted to shoot the video not in a way to aspire to, but something to connect to. By using similar locations, connotations can place both characters on par with each other and display common thoughts and issues, which we will try and construct with our choice of shot compositions and angles. Being the male characters house, the colours (brown, black, white) can appear quite old and mysterious. However with the flower patterns on the furniture, leather chair and guitar can all be signifiers of creativity, adding character to the mysteriousness and later making a connection of the male's emotions (unknown to the female) to the female.
Picture 1:
A similar shot to this (featuring the same angle) will be used at the beginning of the first verse, as the male character returns home with one half of the photo that was torn in two during the intro. He will open the door and walk into the house closing the door behind him, and then proceed to place a set of keys on top of the banister before walking through the door (from where this photo was taken) into the lounge area.
Picture 2:
The same location to picture 1 from a different angle.
Picture 3:
This is the lounge area which will see the male character (still in verse one following transition from putting down his keys and moving into the lounge) put his coat onto the chair bottom left of picture 3, and walk across the room (right to left of picture 3) to sit down on the black leather chair (top right of picture 3). It is here that he will set down the half of the photo he retrieved onto the coffee table (at the top of picture 3) and a notepad, pen and guitar will be beside him to later use in the video.
Picture 4:
This specific shot used for picture 4 is similar to our intended shot in chorus 2 as in the backround door/window (at the top of picture 3) the female character will appear, with the male character sitting in the leather chair unaware she is there.
Picture 5:
Picture 5 is the lead on from picture 4, as this is where the final verse will be shot (when the male character and female character interact and press their halves of the torn photo from the intro, up against the window for the outro. To the left of picture 5 behind the wall the leather chair is up against, is a keyboard which could possibly be used in the video as the composition of the music track includes a piano part as well as a guitar part. (pictures of the guitar and the keyboard will be included under a post labelled "Props and costumes")
Picture 6:
This includes the outside of the male character's house and the window/door where the chorus and outro will be set in the video, when the female character approaches the male characters house, knocks on the door and pushes her photo up against the window/door.
I have altered the saturation of the pictures of the location into black and white as this location will be presented in black and white in the video, to experiment what the location will look like from that perspective. The only time this location will be presented in colour is during the outro, which will feature picture #5.
The reasons we chose this location are because of convenience, audience appeal and status.
The convenience of the location was due to our shooting budget. We did not have the money to acquire anything more upper class to make the video more "lush and classy" if these are the right words to use. It was therefore easier to shoot the video using a location of the class which we live in ourselves and model the characters to this mise-en-scene. By using these locations, which are of everyday class C people, we should be able to impose a sense of familiarity with our target audience which will make it easier for them to place themselves into the shoes of our character and "identify" with them (more than they would with a character in a mansion wearing expensive jewellery for example).
As a setting and mise-en-scene of the music video, we wanted to shoot the video not in a way to aspire to, but something to connect to. By using similar locations, connotations can place both characters on par with each other and display common thoughts and issues, which we will try and construct with our choice of shot compositions and angles. Being the male characters house, the colours (brown, black, white) can appear quite old and mysterious. However with the flower patterns on the furniture, leather chair and guitar can all be signifiers of creativity, adding character to the mysteriousness and later making a connection of the male's emotions (unknown to the female) to the female.
Picture 1:
A similar shot to this (featuring the same angle) will be used at the beginning of the first verse, as the male character returns home with one half of the photo that was torn in two during the intro. He will open the door and walk into the house closing the door behind him, and then proceed to place a set of keys on top of the banister before walking through the door (from where this photo was taken) into the lounge area.
Picture 2:
The same location to picture 1 from a different angle.
Picture 3:
This is the lounge area which will see the male character (still in verse one following transition from putting down his keys and moving into the lounge) put his coat onto the chair bottom left of picture 3, and walk across the room (right to left of picture 3) to sit down on the black leather chair (top right of picture 3). It is here that he will set down the half of the photo he retrieved onto the coffee table (at the top of picture 3) and a notepad, pen and guitar will be beside him to later use in the video.
Picture 4:
This specific shot used for picture 4 is similar to our intended shot in chorus 2 as in the backround door/window (at the top of picture 3) the female character will appear, with the male character sitting in the leather chair unaware she is there.
Picture 5:
Picture 5 is the lead on from picture 4, as this is where the final verse will be shot (when the male character and female character interact and press their halves of the torn photo from the intro, up against the window for the outro. To the left of picture 5 behind the wall the leather chair is up against, is a keyboard which could possibly be used in the video as the composition of the music track includes a piano part as well as a guitar part. (pictures of the guitar and the keyboard will be included under a post labelled "Props and costumes")
Picture 6:
This includes the outside of the male character's house and the window/door where the chorus and outro will be set in the video, when the female character approaches the male characters house, knocks on the door and pushes her photo up against the window/door.
Music Video Casting
There are only two characters featuring in our music video, which will consist of a male and a female character in a relationship, which will see them break up, be shown apart and reunite at the end of the video.
The male character will be played by Ian Gurney, a 17 year old student from CNS.
The female character will be played by Jessica Herring, a 17 year old studnet from CNS.
We thought it would be a smart idea to use two characters already in a relationship in our video to attempt to use actor body language and the chemistry towards each other to make the image of both characters in a relationship more convincing.
Other reasons why we chose our actor and actress are because of their age and culture. With our characters being the ages that they are, this should help us reach out and connect with our audience in a way that allows them to familiarise and identify with us, which should aid their understanding of the media language we convey towards them and also their understanding of the situation and emotions that our characters will be experiencing; our audience can familiarise and allow them to connect with the video better.
In terms of culture, our characters are very urban through the clothes that they wear and the location they are situated. The converse trainers and jeans for example that my male character wears will connect to our audience that share a similar dress sense, and can place them parallel to this character in terms of status, which should add appeal to the audience.
The male character will be played by Ian Gurney, a 17 year old student from CNS.
The female character will be played by Jessica Herring, a 17 year old studnet from CNS.
We thought it would be a smart idea to use two characters already in a relationship in our video to attempt to use actor body language and the chemistry towards each other to make the image of both characters in a relationship more convincing.
Other reasons why we chose our actor and actress are because of their age and culture. With our characters being the ages that they are, this should help us reach out and connect with our audience in a way that allows them to familiarise and identify with us, which should aid their understanding of the media language we convey towards them and also their understanding of the situation and emotions that our characters will be experiencing; our audience can familiarise and allow them to connect with the video better.
In terms of culture, our characters are very urban through the clothes that they wear and the location they are situated. The converse trainers and jeans for example that my male character wears will connect to our audience that share a similar dress sense, and can place them parallel to this character in terms of status, which should add appeal to the audience.
Music Video Planning: Location (Amy's House)
We will be using Amy's house as the location (house) of the female character in our video. Predominantly this will be from the start of the music video where the equilibrium is set and broken, and also this location will be cut to between verse 1 and the end of the instrumental leading up to chorus 2.
This location is similarly built up to Ian's house in the way that it has an urban image about it that will appeal and connect to our audience, yet also about the ease of use by using existing foundations and moulding our character status, personalities to the setting.
The characteristics that differ with this location are that there are a lot more white colours at this location and the furniture appears a lot more cosy and relaxing. This could connote that the female character is sensitive, bright and thoughtful. In the video, these themes will be backed up by the actions of the female as she will reminisce through the better tims with the male character by looking at photos (links here to bright/optimism, and thoughtful). Perhaps this could also connote how she may be perceived to listen to the male characters lyrics of the song and inspire her to reconnect with him.
Picture 1:
This is the picture of the shot we will use for the flashback which starts in the instrumental leading to the 4th verse and after the 3rd verse. The characters will emerge from behind where the car is in this photo, which will not be included in the video.
Picture 2:
This is the view from the male's OTS shot when he places his hand on his girlfriend's (female character) face. We might also use this as a long shot from behind of the two character's approaching the house.
Picture 3:
This is the shot where the female character walks out of the house on her way to the male's house at the instrumental before the 2nd chorus, to see him and eventually press the photos together (events that happen in the 2nd chorus and outro). For this shot, the camera man/woman will be perching on the staircase as the femal character goes from the kitchen (left) out of the front door.
Picture 4:
This is where the female character stands and looks out of the window during chorus 1. This shot is from the wrong angle, but the camera will be facing the window and next to the chairs in the picture.
Picture 5:
This is where the female character walks in to the lounge in verse 4 to find the remaining half of the photo (that the male character left behind of the photo torn in half at the intro) with the male's face on it. She picks this up and walks out of the room (which will be shot with a medium shot tracking this movement).
Picture 6:
This is a shot from the door into the living room/lounge. Here, the argument at the beginning of the video will take place. The female character will exit this scene (the intro) through the door behind where this photo was taken (see previous picture).
Picture 7:
This will be the female's bedroom. Here is where the photo will be placed on the wall in the top left of this photo. We will zoom into the photo which will lead onto the flashback at verse 3(see photo 1).
This location is similarly built up to Ian's house in the way that it has an urban image about it that will appeal and connect to our audience, yet also about the ease of use by using existing foundations and moulding our character status, personalities to the setting.
The characteristics that differ with this location are that there are a lot more white colours at this location and the furniture appears a lot more cosy and relaxing. This could connote that the female character is sensitive, bright and thoughtful. In the video, these themes will be backed up by the actions of the female as she will reminisce through the better tims with the male character by looking at photos (links here to bright/optimism, and thoughtful). Perhaps this could also connote how she may be perceived to listen to the male characters lyrics of the song and inspire her to reconnect with him.
Picture 1:
This is the picture of the shot we will use for the flashback which starts in the instrumental leading to the 4th verse and after the 3rd verse. The characters will emerge from behind where the car is in this photo, which will not be included in the video.
Picture 2:
This is the view from the male's OTS shot when he places his hand on his girlfriend's (female character) face. We might also use this as a long shot from behind of the two character's approaching the house.
Picture 3:
This is the shot where the female character walks out of the house on her way to the male's house at the instrumental before the 2nd chorus, to see him and eventually press the photos together (events that happen in the 2nd chorus and outro). For this shot, the camera man/woman will be perching on the staircase as the femal character goes from the kitchen (left) out of the front door.
Picture 4:
This is where the female character stands and looks out of the window during chorus 1. This shot is from the wrong angle, but the camera will be facing the window and next to the chairs in the picture.
Picture 5:
This is where the female character walks in to the lounge in verse 4 to find the remaining half of the photo (that the male character left behind of the photo torn in half at the intro) with the male's face on it. She picks this up and walks out of the room (which will be shot with a medium shot tracking this movement).
Picture 6:
This is a shot from the door into the living room/lounge. Here, the argument at the beginning of the video will take place. The female character will exit this scene (the intro) through the door behind where this photo was taken (see previous picture).
Picture 7:
This will be the female's bedroom. Here is where the photo will be placed on the wall in the top left of this photo. We will zoom into the photo which will lead onto the flashback at verse 3(see photo 1).
Music Video Costumes
We will be using casual urban clothing for our characters to be wearing in the music video.
We feel as our class of status will be around C, that the use of jeans, plain tshirts and trainers should fit this well, and will also identify with our target audience's clothing trends and aspirations. City and Colour use this clothing in their video "Comin' Home", which is the genre we are looking to follow. So the plan is by using these types of clothing, we can use the aspirations their audience will use and the connections they will make with them, and establish those with our audience.
This being the case, our audience can identify with an everyday couple (perhaps like them) and what they face during a break up and reformation of a relationship.
Below is definition of what each character will be wearing:
Male (Ian)
Jacket:
In the first verse when he comes home, he will take off his jacket and throw it over the back of a chair.
T-shirt:
Our character will be in the comfort of his home, allowing him to mix clothes he was wearing at the female's house, and clothes he will be relaxing in at home (everyday wear)
Jeans:
As the male character will be wearing jeans at the female's house, he will remain in these jeans throughout the rest of the video. This conveys the casual approach to the clothing of the male character we are going for.
Trainers:
Again, we are going for the casual approach, and as the male character is wearing these trainers at the female's house when they are having their argument, we see no need for him to remove his trainers when he returnes home.
Female (Jess)
The female character will also be wearing casual clothing as she is in the comfort of her own home. Overall we feel the audience could relate to the casual attire in an easier way and this seems the most appropriate style of clothing for our video.
Top:
She will be wearing a simple top (i will add a photo later on to show how i mean)
Jeans:
Just like the male character, she will be wearing jeans.
Trainers:
As she will be in the comfort of her own home, she will not need to wear trainers until she leaves her house to visit the male character at the end of verse 4. We did not deem it appropriate to add a shot into our video of her putting on any trainers, yet this could be an idea to do so if we have time to spare in our video.
(I will add photos at a later date to show examples of the clothing i have just explained.)
We feel as our class of status will be around C, that the use of jeans, plain tshirts and trainers should fit this well, and will also identify with our target audience's clothing trends and aspirations. City and Colour use this clothing in their video "Comin' Home", which is the genre we are looking to follow. So the plan is by using these types of clothing, we can use the aspirations their audience will use and the connections they will make with them, and establish those with our audience.
This being the case, our audience can identify with an everyday couple (perhaps like them) and what they face during a break up and reformation of a relationship.
Below is definition of what each character will be wearing:
Male (Ian)
Jacket:
In the first verse when he comes home, he will take off his jacket and throw it over the back of a chair.
T-shirt:
Our character will be in the comfort of his home, allowing him to mix clothes he was wearing at the female's house, and clothes he will be relaxing in at home (everyday wear)
Jeans:
As the male character will be wearing jeans at the female's house, he will remain in these jeans throughout the rest of the video. This conveys the casual approach to the clothing of the male character we are going for.
Trainers:
Again, we are going for the casual approach, and as the male character is wearing these trainers at the female's house when they are having their argument, we see no need for him to remove his trainers when he returnes home.
Female (Jess)
The female character will also be wearing casual clothing as she is in the comfort of her own home. Overall we feel the audience could relate to the casual attire in an easier way and this seems the most appropriate style of clothing for our video.
Top:
She will be wearing a simple top (i will add a photo later on to show how i mean)
Jeans:
Just like the male character, she will be wearing jeans.
Trainers:
As she will be in the comfort of her own home, she will not need to wear trainers until she leaves her house to visit the male character at the end of verse 4. We did not deem it appropriate to add a shot into our video of her putting on any trainers, yet this could be an idea to do so if we have time to spare in our video.
(I will add photos at a later date to show examples of the clothing i have just explained.)
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