Ellie Lubin Evaluation

Evaluation 

In what way does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

In our music video, in order to make it as professional as possible, we tried to meet the conventions of real media products. We had to consider, however, that as the band is an indie/pop-rock band, some of these conventions would be challenged to evoke they are slightly rebelling and this musical genre and tend not to stick by the rules. It also represents the band as controversial and how some of these conventions have simply been developed and adapted to fit in with the nature of the band we were trying to portray. Todorov’s narrative theory suggested that every text goes through a storyline. It starts with equilibrium, then reaching disequilibrium, realization, then attempt at resolution, resolution and then re-equilibrium.  In a music video focusing on the narrative aspect, this is demonstrated through the storyline. A narrative has a clear storyline and so the theory is more easily applied. For example, in the music video ‘grenade’ by Bruno mars, also indie/pop genre, uses the narrative theory. It begins with equilibrium of when the couple are together – which the audience are not actually shown and this is so an example of how other media products have challenged these conventions, the disequilibrium is show when they have clearly broken up and he is devastated looking at old photos then realization he is realizing she is gone and then attempts to resolve it through going to see her with his piano. Resolution is found when she is seen with another guy and so he must move on, re-equilibrium is where she is happy, but he decides he cannot go on like this and so ends his life. In a performance video, this narrative theory is established through the story of the band. In our hybrid music video, we have applied this theory through our narrative and performance aspects. In our narrative the equilibrium starts with the girl and guy just going to the pub on a normal Friday night. This then turns to disequilibrium when they see someone they find attractive and the purpose of the night has changed. Attempt and resolution is then when they go back o her house and then spend the night together, however as they were not after a relationship, resolution is established when he leaves in the morning and then re-equilibrium is found when they can then go back to their normal lives. In the narrative, we have met the conventions of this theory. However the rock-indie style of music we have chosen to follow, tend to challenge these theories and not meet the conventions. You could argue that our narrative and performance don’t meet this theory, as the value of a one-night stand doesn’t have enough depth for the theory to be applied. 

Props narrative theory, suggested that there are certain characters and important people in every storyline. It says that every text has a villain, a dispatcher, a helper, a seeker hero, a false hero, and a prize. This also evident in the Bruno mars video, when the villain is clearly himself, the seeker hero would be her new boyfriend and the false hero is him when he thinks he has hope in winning her back. She is the prize and so he wants to get her back. Similarly in our music video, it was difficult to apply this as rigidly as there are fewer characters in a music video than in a storyline or film. Challenging this convention is typical of a music video, or for each character to multiple roles proposed by Propp. In our music video, the main singer is the seeker hero. He wants to win the girl, who not only is the prize but is also vulnerable and used for a one night stand so could be perceived as the villain. The dispatcher is the bar tender, giving them the alcohol so they become less aware, and they are more eager to get back to the girls house. The false hero could also be the main singer or the female character. Either could be given this role as both seam to solve everything and be all the other wants the next day, as an audience we don’t know who ended it, and therefore both could be seen as the false hero, having given the other false hope.

Another narrative theory is Barthes codes. The Enigma code is applied. This is where information is deliberately kept from the audience t build tension, create suspense and exaggerate the unknown. The scenes in the pub use this code as the quick fast jump cuts using the editing to create suspense and hold things from the audience. As the narrative doesn’t use word association and the lyrics are open to interpretation, the music causes all the dialogue to be unknown, there for using enigma code to hide this from to audience. The Proairetic code shows how tension is created through acts and actions carried out by the actors. We applied this code to our production at the end, when they go to the girl’s house. The tempo of the music also decreases, allowing the tension to be built up as they walk up the stairs and into her room. The semiotic and symbolic codes we also used heavily in our production. This is directly linked to the motifs, signs and semiotics. In the pub scene, we used the shots of the beers, the different spirits the bar and bar tender to enforce the idea of drunken Friday night. When we first shot our pub scene, whilst reflecting we could see there was not nearly enough that gave the illusion of a lot of drinking, drinking and more drinking. When re-filming this we tried to incorporate as many pub filler shots as we could and in the editing tried to include shot like the male toilet to show show the pub and have interesting shots that were reflective of the setting. The darts board was particularly important, showing the game side of their relationship. The dart also reflects how flight is important but also how it will be over quickly and sharply – the same the one night stand. The girl character is wearing red shoes. Red is a colour of love and passion, evoking the one night stand relationship between the two characters.

Another convention of media products is to use binary opposition. Levi Strauss proposed that contrasts and challenging views helped strengthen a product using dramatic effect. We enforced this through the change is light and dark from the pub scene where its bright, lively and animated to the walk home which was dark and shadowy. Another contrast was between the open, public flirt in the pub to the private walk home, alone.

We tried to conform to the setting of the band. We wanted an alternative indie look, in which setting in a garage was perfect. Thankfully Pk’s garage was available and we could adapt it to look exactly as we had imagined and planned. The settings all came together and I feel that this conformed to how an ‘indie’ band would represent themselves.

When filming, it was important to not break the 180 degree rule. This proved especially difficult when filming the scene at the girl’s house, as the stairs went up and round a corner. To get round this problem, we just had the shots of the couple going up the stairs and then a straight cut to them going into her room and closing the door behind them. From our first attempt in the pub, it was really useful as we could find out what was really important and then make the rest of the filming better quality. We found that the shots that we hand held tended to be weaker, however moving shots were better hand held. This was important, especially in the performance aspect as we wanted lots of different angles. Some of the high angles were originally shot with someone holding the camera on the ladder, however, we then decided that using the ladder to hold the camera steady would establish a more stable and balanced shot, making it look more professional.

We also looked closely at creating the meaning at inception or consumption. In our society and climate, more pop acts tend to create their meaning at consumption. However, due to the amount of power a record label has over an act, this is slowly changing and so the record label can create the meaning they want to portray and how they want to present the act and inception also to the audience it is seemingly at consumption. According to the Adornos musical theory (1950s) which studied high and low culture, all pop music is meaningless, thoughtless texts and the passive audience allow these texts to wash over them. He also said pop has ‘standardized’ to a point where it’s almost just repeated each time, and so there’s no intellectual level needed to process this. We hope to challenge this convention on pop music, as I believe that our production the meaning was created at inception and there is meaning there. The metanarrative of the band is that they are typical ‘lads’ who play music and like to enjoy life. They come across as almost one dimensional, but then have a talent for music at a young age. We chose to set out storyline in a pub rather than a club, as we thought a pub had deeper thought. Going to the pub, playing darts in a lot more mature than going dancing in a club and reflects the band perfectly.

How effective is the combination of your main production and ancillary tasks?

The combination of our advert, digipack and music video allows us to understand the band as a whole. By creating an advertising campaign it really made us think carefully about the target audience and what would be the best way to reach them. In doing the digipack, I had to think about the positioning of things and colour schemes that all linked in with the metanarrative of the band. By creating all 3 pieces, we were able to create a true identity for the band, and establish their belonging in the music industry. I feel that our 3 pieces tie together well. The indie edgy look is carried through in all 3 products, which gives a clear concept to the band. The digipack itself I feel has worked well. The images link together well and all the conventions of a digipack were met, this made it seem professional and well thought out. As the band is a new band, they need to appeal to their target audience and reach them through advertising in order to have the ability to become more well-known and popular. The images used in the digipack convey humour, t make the band likeable, and use synthetic personalization to form a relationship with the audience. Their passion for music is strongly conveyed through the choice of photos, in the ‘festival’ look and the band shot. The indie look is also re-enforced through the use of the garage ‘band’ shot, the wall on the spine shows their strength and their strong cemented connections. Finally the last shot of the digipack, the converses evoke the normality of their teenage life, and that they are relatable for fans. The burnt orange writing relates back to the indie look and stands out against the white background, whilst linking to the spine in the burnt orange ‘wall’ colour. Finally, the shot we added in after looking at our digipack, we decided that the picture of Joe alone way strong than the ‘festival’ one and so we could use both for the digipack. The single image evokes his personality and uses binary opposition between the seriousness and the immaturity of the band, for example demonstrated in the tie contrasting with the t-shirt. The message displayed on the card closely links with the look we were trying to go for with our front cover. The ‘mug shot’ is perfect for the band as it shows their indie/rock roots and how they represent themselves. The magazine advert will be shown in 2 magazines in particular, appealing to both the male and female sides of the young target audience we have tried to aim our music at. The magazine advert, I feel is very strong. The image at the top is the same as the CD cover so is easily recognizable to our audience, it is aesthetically pleasing and the direct mode of address used by all except tom shows how the band are creating a relationship with their audience, and the fact that tom is looking away demonstrates how they are edgy and slightly rebellious by not conforming to the typical conventions in a shot like this. The added information at the bottom, the review are by companies that the target audience would respect the views of and would think highly of, and that date gives information to the fans. The download date shows how the band is up-to-date and current and is appealing to a wide range of audience.

What have you learned from your audience?

During the making of our film, we constantly asked our audience what they thought of our music video ideas and production. This allowed us to adapt what we were doing as we went along to suit our target audience, and try and make it as professional as possible. In the planning stages, we did a questionnaire, in order to establish exactly who our target audience were so we could appeal directly to them and then more focused on our target audience, what they wanted out of a music video. It was evident from this that a hybrid video was defiantly the most popular choice. When coming up with our storyline we wanted to make it believable and relatable for our audience, and typical for a teenage boy-band. The ‘one-night-stand’ concept was decided as it’s easy to convey and fits in well with our metanarrative and the bands performance video. We also found from our audience, they they prefer to be passively watching the video, and so the concept had to be simple and the performance entertaining and light. From playing our music video to a number of people, we have received positive feedback about the quality of the thought out shots. Even from when we hadn’t put together any shots, the ideas behind the choice of setting, our audience seemed to like. ‘The performance in particular is aesthetically pleasing, and is well framed’. When we filmed the performance shots, we filmed it twice using two different lighting the first time round, so that we could establish which was more effective. We than asked our target audience which they thought was more appropriate and better to watch, and then we went with that lighting to continue with. The lighting in second of the two was brighter, and this showed the expressions on our characters faces much more brightly. After filming the pub scene the first time, we received comments that the ‘actors needed to be more animated and expressive’ and we should try and incorporate ‘moving shots and more close ups of the actors faces.’ In the second filming of the pub we tried to use this, and found tried to increase the camera movement and get more dynamic shots, and have more close up, two shots in our filming. The two shot was said to be ‘nicely framed’ and the mise-en-scene of the pub was believable and appeared busy. The use of extras and their positioning meant we could make the pub look busy, whilst only having a few extras. In the walking home scenes, the shot out of the pub which was blurry had mixed reactions. Some comments suggested it pulled on the ‘drunken’ appeal of the music video, others said it looked like we had got a focus shot wrong. We debated over whether to use this shot or not as the group were split as to if it was professional looking or poor looking, in conjunction with our audience feedback. The song was commented on by a few people, as it was so unknown. Some said it was ‘catchy’ and that our music video fitted with it well. in the performance shots, we were told that the framing was really good. The edgy underground setting we were told was a ‘risk that has defiantly paid off’ and I think that it was a perfect choice of setting. Comments on the lighting across our main singers face were that it was good as the character was well lit in a naturalistic was, but was believable and showed the character is good. There was questioning of the shadowing as if it was the camera man, but it was quickly established this was just the other band members creating shadows with the due to the lights. Once we had established we needed to involve more camera movement, we tried to have a few moving filler shots in each setting. The shots through the banister we well received and said ‘they were realistic and at a nice angle. The movement up the door makes it easy t watch and draws your attention.’ I asked my friend Wil to interview him to see his feedback on our finished product. The video is above.

How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

From the very beginning of our production we have used new media technologies for our production. We set up an online blog using the site ‘blogger’ to keep an up-to-date portfolio of our production. This was available to all members and we used different ways of blogging to learn about the new media technologies available. To start with we learnt how to truly analyse a music video. This involved watching many music videos, applying theories, looking at sythethisia, semiotics etc in order to plan out our preliminary task. This involved careful research online in order to find the song we wanted to swede using YouTube. We then had to use a YouTube convertor in order to be able to use it on the editing software we were going to use ‘final cut express.’ We then used the internet to research into theories and conventions of media products – specifically music videos to add to the knowledge we already had, in order to do in-depth analysis of the foo-fighters video ‘Best of you.’ In order to film the preliminary task, we needed to use the cameras and tripods to try and create the same effect as the band had created. It was important to focus on lighting and shot type, whilst choosing the setting and actors appropriately. The camera movement was difficult at first, as we struggled to get the shots steady but with movement. After having established this we managed to film most of the shots and upload them onto final cut express. When we put our filming together, there were a few shots of a lion chasing birds which would have been impossible to copy, and so therefore we had to download a copy of the foo-fighters original video to cut out the shot we needed. Whilst editing our sweding task, we started to think about the planning for our own music video. It became apparent that we needed to really plan out our shots and allow enough time for editing. In our planning, we first came up with the sort of song we wanted to do. In order to make our music video more original, useable and overall more innovative, we wanted to make a video for an unknown band who don’t have a music video. My friend was the photographer of a band who had recently broken up for university. I felt this was perfect as they had no current music videos, we could create our own metanarrative. The only thing we had to base our storyline on was the 4 songs that’s they had released to try and establish a representation, and the lyrics of the song we chose. They had the social networking site ‘myspace’ that we could look at, but there bareness evoked how it was something they started but never continued with. The few photos they had posted and the biography they had written produced their school-boy image, and their outgoing personalities. After choosing this band, I did a short questionnaire to find out what our target audience were after, and what they would want out of a music video, by using excel I could create graphs and charts to collate the data to see the results in as clear way as possible. After getting permission of the band, we then started story-boarding and taking photos of the venue. The photos of the pub were taken on my phone, which I then sent via Bluetooth to the Apple Mac, along with a voice recording r a commentary of the pictures. We then combined the voice over with the pictures and changed it to a video file to upload to the blog. I then did the story board of the narrative aspect of the production, ready to film in the pub. I scanned these into my computer and changed them to image files so they could also be put onto the blog. Me and Joe also did a video blog, where we analysed the setting we were filming and uploaded this too the blog as well. After having filmed our first day in the pub, I wrote the diary entry for the day. In order to use new technologies here, I downloaded a ‘smilebox’ programme where I could create a slideshow for the blog which included the photos, diary entry and then posted a link to the video I was linking our shot types too. When we were filming, we used the tripod and camera to create the shot angles we wanted. We then went to set up the performance aspect of the video. When doing this we discussed lighting and decided we wanted to add filler lights to create the right lighting across the main singers face. We wanted a bright look as it was important that this character appeared ‘good’. Throughout the filming we used the tripod when filming any still shots, allowing them to be steady and consistent. When however filming the moving shots we made sure the camera man was still and practiced each shot before filming. When we filmed each shot at least a few times and made sure we allowed a few seconds either side of each shot and s when it came to editing this would dramatically improve the ability to edit, and stopping that the shots finished too immediately. In the beginning stages of our editing, we made all of our clips into smaller sub clips, making them easier to manage. We started off with the performance, where matching up the lip sinking in time with the music. The best way to do this we found was to keep the sound of the filming and then delete it after once we’ve established the part of the song Joe was singing. Each shot was labelled and so so easily recognizable when looking for a particular shot. When using final cut, I learnt a lot of how to split up a shot. For the darts shot, we wanted 3 shots immediately after each other. Originally I tried to cut up the shot and cut out the length between each time the dart hit the board, however because of the slight camera movement the cut wasn’t clean enough. Instead I sped up the speed of the clip to 200% which mean the darts hit the board within the right timings, without having slight jumps between each shot. The timing was difficult to manage as the the performance needed to be integrated with the lyrics, but it didn’t look right to change between performance and narrative half way through a line. In the making of the ancillary tasks, we used a hand held digital camera to get the shots of the band and uploaded them to Finepix viewer. I downloaded a CD template, to learn the sizes I needed to work to. When in the classroom, we changed and edited and added to our ancillary tasks. I used IPhoto to edit the digipack and Advert, and in order to make them look as best as possible. in order to use new media technologies in my evaluation, I recorded my friend Wil Page in an interview evaluating our video. To do this, I recorded it and then sent the file to the computer via Bluetooth, and then changed it to a QuickTime video. The blog had trouble uploading this type of file and so I then created a YouTube account, uploaded it too that and could then post the video through YouTube onto the blog.

Over all I am very pleased with our final production. Unfortunately, because of all the changes amongst the actor and actress, we had little time to film our ‘pub’ shot. The performance side of the video is easily the strongest and has come out exactly as we had hoped. The combination of the performance shots and strong editing also helped the narrative and so overall I am think it looks really effective. If we were to do it again, I think we would give ourselves more time to edit and film. Towards the end there was a real push in order to make sure we were finished on time, simply because the filming had to be kept pushed later and later. I think that the ancillary tasks have come together well and support our main production well.

Ellie