Evaluation

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

In order for our music video to be successful we had to make sure we developed the same forms and conventions of real media products. In order to do this we had to research and plan how we wanted our music video to turn out. We firstly watched music videos form Youtube to gain an idea of how we were going to film and what sort of music video we would have liked. There are 3 types of music video narrative, performance and abstract. After researching music videos we came to a group decision that we would include narrative and performance in our music video. We would have liked to have involved something abstract in our video how ever song choice was very hard and it was even harder to think of a way to involve all 3 types into 1 music video. After much deliberation we eventually came up with a song to use for our music video 'Light of day' by The Alfonz. We decided upon this track and artist because they are a band that originated from Swindon and played the introducing stage at Glastonbury one year. Although their album is on iTunes the band are not as well known as others. This made it easier for us as they did not have a music video for their song which meant that we could create one for it, using our own interpretations of the song and its meanings which also stopped us from copying straight from the video if it had one. The song was a perfect choice as it was classed in the genre of alternative which meant that it is a lively song thats rocky but not very heavy. It was also only 2:44 in length which was good because that meant that we did not have to film to much and the quick straight cuts would fit in perfectly. The next thing that we had to do was decide on what the narrative of the music video was and plan it out. We also had to decide where we were going to film our performance. To gain ideas of what type of setting we would use, we looked at other music videos and took note on their settings. We came across two videos that took our liking. These were 'Skyway Avenue' by We The Kings and '1985' by Bowling For Soup. We got our inspiration from these videos as the performance side of them is located in a garage and we thought that this setting would fit  perfectly with our band and style as it is very urban and gives the image that were still practicing. Luckily PK has a garage that we were able to use as it has a wide open space on the inside and a driveway running up to it that would allow us to place the camera outside the garage with the door open like in Bowling For Soup. We got most of our ideas from We The Kings as they had narrative in their video switching from inside the garage to a boy and girl on a date. This was exactly what we planned to do so the video helped us with timings and shots. In order to use, develop and challenge forms of real media products, we had to make our video look as professional as possible. To do this we had to include specific lighting, camera angles, camera shots, camera movements, actors, setting and costume. Through planning we decide that we should dress very indie as that is the genre of the song. This mean that we would wear clothes like skinny jeans, converses or daps, polo shirts, checkered shirts and black see through glasses. This adds to our image and acts as a type of uniform to make us look more professional in our video. We decided that our narrative would be about a boy meeting a girl in a pub, they both get drunk together and start flirting with each other. The boy would then manage to 'pull' the girl and they end up leaving the pub and walking back to the girls house to take things further and have a one night stand. This narrative supports Todorov's theory  and is often in the music industry. We thought that it would also be a good idea to have Joe as our lead singer as well as our main character because the performance and him signing would be like him telling a story of what happened. We decided to use a pub as the place where they meet as we were able to use one of the local pubs in Wootton Bassett when it was closed to film inside. This was a great place to film as motif of alcohol was all around us and we could use cut away shots and reaction shots to show this. To obtain the correct lighting in our performance shot, I used my Dad's plastering lights that are able to be hung up. We used three of these light and placed them one at the right hand side of the garage next to Gareth, one at the front of the garage by the corner for the door opening and the last one was the brightest one which we placed outside to light up the outside of the garage and the inside. After much moving around we found this positioning to be the best as it lit the entire garage up. Also, as Joe has very pale skin the light lit up his face the most which was exactly what we wanted as it portrayed him as seeing the 'Light Of Day'. It put more emphasis on Joe making him stand out and be the front man. The only difficulty that we faced with this lighting was that there were very big shadows along the back wall and on our faces sometimes where Pk would walk in front of the light when filming. However, lighting was much harder to do when filming the narrative especially the walk from the pub to the girls house as we had to film in the dark and away from electricity. We had to keep the atmosphere dark and desolate as the time in the narrative was supposed to be around 1-am in the morning.  The other convention that we challenged and used was the camera shots, angle and movement. In the video Skyway Avenue, it was clear that not all of our shots should be filmed using the tripod as this would make it look to static. Instead we filmed the majority of the video handheld. The slight movement of the camera completely changed the shots and made them more lively which is what we wanted for music video. We managed to take some inspiration from Skyway Avenue for our shot types as they had the correct proportion of individual shots and whole band shots. We brought this into our own video by using shots of individuals such as Rob on the drums but also shots of Me playing guitar yet still seeing Rob in the back ground. We also used shots that were of different and varying distances away from the subject which a typical convention of real media products. We then edited all of the shots together varying in quick cuts and longer cuts depending on the tempo and speed of the music and also the fee in the narrative. This is a regular convention in real music products to make the video worth watching and not boring.

How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

I believe that the combination of our main product and our ancillary texts are very effective. Our aim was keep the same image that we had in our music video and carry it across to our ancillary texts. For example we wanted to show that we are close as band in our digipak just like we come across as in our music video. To do this we came up with the idea of having our faces in each corner of the front cover in the style of a mug shot. This would allow the audience to see us up close with out our instruments to see what we are like away from the music. After taking pictures of the mug shots I began to edit the front cover together. After a first attempt of putting the pictures together the front cover just looked boring as there was nothing to catch the eye. After further research and investigation, I found out that CD covers in a similar style did not all have the same style picture. Therefore I decided that there needed to be something different and slightly random. I changed the picture of Gareth so that he was massively smiling and then of me so that I was looking away leaving Rob and Joe looking at the camera and smiling slightly. I then edited the photo. I discovered an editing website online so I changed the photos into black and white and then de-edited everyones t-shirts to add colour that would stand out. I placed me and Gareth on opposite corners as we had the brightest t-shirts on and were doing the different poses. This evened the cover out massively. I think it is effective because each photo in the digipak links to the video and to the band. The front cover shows the band as they are without the music. Each picture shows the personality of that band member and gives audience an idea of what they are like. The photo of Joe with the political message shows that the band are light heart and don't follow mainstream acts of publicity. The use of binary oppositions in this photo such as the tie round Joe's neck yet he's wearing t-shirt and the anarchy sign shows that the band do what they want and what there fans want. They are genuine. This is also shown by the fact that the setting of the performance is in a garage which shows that they are laid back and as long as they are playing music they don't care where it is or how they look. The brick work on the spine of the digipak is a reminder of this and represents an urban and rugged feel to it. Also, the picture of the whole band together where the CD goes shows that they are a close band and best friends. This photo links with the front cover as they are now with their instruments. The magazine cover is also very effective as it is simple and eye catching. There is not much writing the cluster up the page and is straight to the point, just like the band is. The front cover is laid back which is also used on the poster so that people know what the CD looks like and what each of the band members look like. They will want to buy it because the CD cover already gives them an idea of the personality of the band. The combination of the digipak and the music video really gives the audience a feel for the band and what they enjoy.

What have you learnt form your audience feedback?

I have learnt from my audience feedback that everyone generally liked our video and thought it was very good. People that do not do media have said that it was very good. They especially liked our setting for the performance which was in the garage as they said it looked although we were just practicing which was exactly the look that we were going for. The main aspect that we continuously got told was great was the long shot of the entire band with the edge of the garage acting as a border. This was also everyones favorite shot as they said we lined the camera up symmetrically with the garage so that everything was even and well positioned. Another aspect that everyone liked was the fact that Joe was the main character as well as the main singer. People said that the song choice was really good and the lip syncing of joe with the voice and everyone else with the instruments as it was all in time and actually looked like we were performing the song. Nevertheless, one thing that people did comment on and said needed to be improved was the lighting of when the 2 characters walk into the girls house. They said that the lighting should have been better as they struggled to make out what was happening as it was to dark. The audience also said that the cuts and transitions between each shot were excellent and that the faded transitions were in perfect places with the overall mood and direction of  the song. However they added that in some places we should have added some effect on the image. It was suggested that each time a performance shot was cut to, then there should be a different colour fill layer of the top of the image. Everybody that watched our video liked our narrative and agreed that it was a solid story line but maybe should have tried something more imaginative and original. Finally, the audience agreed that the percentage of performance shots to narrative was perfect, also that the timings from going between the two sides was really good. The audience feedback helped as a lot as we were editing our video and when we had finished. It allowed us to go back and alter parts of our video that we had subconsciously missed for example we didn't have many individual shots of Gareth in our video until it was noticed by Jordan Riley. This then allowed us to include some more shots of Gareth to improve our video. Overall, I learnt that lighting is very key when filming as all of our audience picked up on the fact that the shot when the pair walk into the house is to dark. Also, i've learnt that a type of shot or movement can seem wrong to someone else than it can to you, for example a shot of Rob playing the drums was out of time with the music and I had not realised until Dan Wignal pointed it out to me. Finally, I've learnt that we need to plan thoroughly in advance and turn up to film knowing exactly what to do and so that your not rushed for time, including editing.

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

For all of the stages, I have used this website called blogger.com to post all of my research and investigation so that everybody can see them. This is much better than writing them down on paper as they do not get ruined and they all stay in the same place. Another media technology that I used was a website and software called Prezi.com. This is a new and initiative way of creating a presentation to present to other people. I used this website to create a mindmap to show the locations that we would potentially be visiting to film at when Joe and Nikki leave the pub to walk home. Anther media technology that we all used was rather than post the pictures of the inside of the pub on the blog and writing about them, we gathered round as a group and spoke into a microphone to record ourself discussing each section of the pub. I then edited this together so that the picture we were discussing came up onto the screen at that time. Me and Pk also went round school and filmed a questionnaire asking people what they look for in a band and what they look for in a front man i.e should he be loud, quiet, boozy, fierce, timid and even what gender. We have all constantly been using Youtube and the internet to find out information to do with our music video. I also posted an interview of me asking my sister what she thought of our music video giving good and bad points. This was part of our audience feedback. Finally, we used Final Cut Express on the Macs to edit all of our footage to turn it into the master piece that is our final music video!

Final Digipack

 This is the front cover of our digipack. after much discussion, we have decided that this is the strongest image suitable for the front cover for our band. Tom came up with the concept after researching the Blurr CD cover, and added a quirky twist to the standard shot. this resulted with our cover shot being in Black and white but with the t-shirts in colour, to be aesthetically pleasing and different. 

 This is a shot of the main singer, this will be used for the front cover of the booklet. We felt, in order to the continue with our 'indie' theme and concept, it fitted perfectly. The message, clearly written in a 'scribbled' handwriting style, uses irony and comedy to evoke the how the band are playing on the seriousness. The binary opposition used in this shot - the tie representing the establishment but the t-shirt presenting the antiestablishment. However its not quite anarchy, to come across as playful from an ouside view in contrast, but the use of the anarchy symbol portrays the message that we want to tear down the establishment on the inside.

 this shot started off as a cover shot, but after careful evaluation, we decided this would be the back page of the booklet with the credits on. We thought this would be a suitable image to show their passion for music, and their playful nature. 

 This shot will be used for the placement of the CD. It them in the band they are together in, showing their working class/school indie look. It shows how they are trying to make it big in the music industry, however as they are not recognized yet they are still stuck to their urban/alternative garage setting.

 This will be used for the spine. This is the first thing that could be seen on a shelf in a shop, and displays their roots of the garage. it also shows how as a group they are cemented. This basically relates back to urban image, that we set out to create.

 what could be more indie than converses? nothing. This is why we chose this for the back cover of our CD.  Originally, we came up with images associated with our band's metanarrative. After further research we wanted the image to be relatable to the genre of music. We tried to add features of a real CD. including web addresses, bar codes, price and other conventions of the digipack. 

Ellie, Joe and Tom

Ideas for our front cover

We each had many ideas on what sort of photo that we wanted for the front cover of our digipak. However, we all agreed that we wanted it to be a picture of the band. We had different ideas that it should be a performance shot of the band similar to the band 'Paramore' on their CD 'The final riot' where each band member is in a performance shot in a column next to each other on the front cover. Another idea was to just have the band looking at the camera with their instruments, or just holding their instruments. An example of this cover is 'The Kooks' and their album 'Inside in Inside Out'. Here you can clearly see each band member in the photo holding the instrument that they play. After much discussion on what sort of photos to take we asked Rob and Gareth what days they were free to take photos and when would they prefer to do them. However, due to Rob getting a new job with more hours it meant that we could only get all four of us together on one day.

On the morning of the day that we were taking pictures I took a look through my mum's CD collection to get some more inspiration and ideas for our front cover and a digipak to blog about. I found a CD which was very similar to an idea that was mention in the group. The CD was 'Blur: the best of'. I showed everyone else and we agreed that this would be our front cover.


<==== Blur: the best of

We all really liked this idea as it was very simple, effective and eye catching. It also clearly shows each of the band members which some CD covers often don't do. I liked the different colours of the background behind each person because it breaks up the overall image and almost gives a separate personality to each of the band members. We preferred the layout of the actual CD case on the left rather than the protective slip on the right because the pictures were much bigger and filled the whole CD cover. The pictures also made the title very clear and at a centre point to be noticed.

                        A nearly finished front cover====>
                                                                        After school me and Joe then got Rob and Gareth to come round to my house to take the photos. We placed ourselves one by one against a flat blank wall in my bedroom and took many pictures from varying distances  and poses so that we had a variety to choose from. I then uploaded the photos and chose which ones I would use. At first I started off so that we all had a neutral pose and facial expressions. However, this was not interesting to look at. I the blur CD cover the faces are in the style of pop art so that it is catchy and different. Therefor, I used the photo of me looking off at an angle rather than at the camera and used the picture of Gareth with a big smile. This broke the cover up a lot giving a different image to each person. I also used an editing website on the internet which was http://www.picnik.com/. This allowed me change the photos into black and white, although this made the cover dull. Finally, I realised i needed to add some colour to the cover so I edited the photos so that the t-shirts we were all wearing are in colour and everything else is in black and white. The only thing left that may be changed is the writing and font in the middle as it looks to much like Microsoft word and not original.

Evalution Of A Digipak

A digipak is an extended CD that offer much more material to the buyer that you would not normally get with an average CD or album. The content of a digipak includes much more pictures and images of the artist, bonus material such as photos, songs, extra information about the artist or songs. This allows fans to be able to see what the artist is like beyond the music and beyond the stage. Digipaks often have more than 2 panels like the average CD. They can vary from 3,4,6 or 8 panels making it more of booklet than a CD. The typical features that a digipak includes are name of the artist, album, track listing, booklet, price, bonus material, website, credits recording information, producer/director, time/place recorded, song writer, images, logo, record label logo, barcode and website address.

Elton John Greatest Hits 1970-2002 is great digipak to evaluate as it has nearly all the features that I mentioned in the first paragraph. The front cover is very basic and shows in clear writing the artist and the album. The text stands out because it is dark writing on a white background, which also makes it very easy to read. Also as there is only one picture on the front cover the viewer it forced to look at either the text or the picture. The picture on the front cover is a simple picture of Elton John. It seems to be in the style of an artistic drawing. As he is wearing a white suit that blends in with the background of the front cover, it draws more attention to his face as that is where the colour is especially the yellow glasses that he's wearing and the hair on his head. Finally, there is a sticker in the bottom left hand corner that says it is a special edition 3CD set. It also includes the names of the Elton John's most famous tracks.

The back cover of the digipak is mainly the track listing of the 3CD's. The writing above the line is the track listing of the first 2 CD's which are also the main CD's. Below the line is the track listing of the bonus CD. This is set out like this to make the buyer see how much bonus content they are actually getting it and that it is worth it. Also below the line, the bar code is situated in the bottom right hand corner. Below this, there is copyright information and information about the digipak such as the rights of the digipak, when the digipak was produced and what lable produced it .

When you open up the digipack, you are first presented with a collage of photos of Elton John. The photos are a collection of old CD covers, magazine covers and interviews, himself performing on stage. These are all photos that were taken throughout his career but between the years of 1970 and 2002. Not only are there pictures of him but there are also pictures of tickets to a gig of his such as Wembley Stadium and also a $1 note with a picture of him on it. This collage allows the viewer to see a few of the memorable things that he has done in his career. It also shows his personality more by the type of photos that he has included.

Once these to panels are then opened the 3 CD's are then shown. They each have a photo on them of Elton John at the different stages in his career. You can see this by how different he looks in each of them. The CD slots are white just like the front and back covers. The CD's are black as well. This is the colour scheme throughout the digipak which makes it look very sleek and professional. On the very right panel there is a 40 page booklet containing photos and information about his career. It also contains information about his most famous songs and how/where he found the inspiration to write them.

The 40 page booklet is effectively an inlet for fans to see Elton John not only when he's performing, but also when he's backstage, touring, or just at home. The booklet provides extra information about the artist and the songs with many photos of him doing the thing that he loves most.

Narrative Theories

Narrative theory is nearly always present in films and music videos, even music videos that do not even have any narrative in them. There are four main narrative theories that were created by Tzvetan Todorov, Roland Barthes, Claude Levi-Strauss and Vladimir Propp.

Todorov's Theory

Todorov was a Bulgarian literary theorist. He suggested that most narratives start with a state of equilibrium meaning that everything is normal in life and that there is no danger or harm. Then life is brought into a disequilibrium, meaning that trouble has been caused and that normal life has been significantly disrupted. He suggested that this state of normality is disrupted by an outside force and is forced to be fought against to return to normality. Once the outside force has been fought the state of equilibrium is then returned and normal life is carried on.

Barthes's Theory

Barthes was a french semiologist. He suggested that narrative works in five different codes which in turn activate the reader to make sense of the narrative being transcribed. The first code is Action. This means that a resolution is produced through action e.g fighting of a man to win the woman you love. The second code is Enigma. This teases the audience by presenting a riddle or puzzle that has to be solved in order to establish a resolution e.g finding out who is black-mailing a person by looking at the clues they've left. The third and fourth codes are Symbolic and Semiotic. These the same thing yet also the opposite as they represent connotation and denotation. These are the signs and motif that are present within a narrative such as a gun or a special book. In the James Bond films, a motif would be that he always asks for a Vodka Martini 'Shaken not stirred'. These can also be opposites for example calling someone 'strong minded' is a positive connotation yet it is also the same as saying they are 'Stubborn' which is a negative connotation. The fifth and final code is Cultural. This is where the audience can recognize as being part of a culture e.g The Godfather and being part of the Mafia culture.

Levi-Strauss

Levi-Strauss was a social anthropologist who studied mythes of tribal cultures. He examined how stories unconsciously reflect the values, beliefs and myths of a culture. His research has been adapted by media theorists to reveal underlying themes and symbolic oppositions in media texts. For example binary oppositions: Home Steaders V Native Americans, Christian V Pagan, Domestic V Savage, Weak V Strong, Garden V Wilderness and Inside Society V Outside Society.

Vladimir Propp

Propp's theory was that he suggested that every narrative had character roles that included a villain, a dispatcher, a helper, a seeker hero, a prize and a doner. A stereotypical example would be a villain takes a girl to his lair. The seeker hero has to travel to save the girl but confronts challenges along his way. He meets the helper who accompanies him on his quest and helps him. The doner gives them something that will also help them e.g a map, advice, a sword etc. Once the villain is defeated and the hero saves the girl, they fall in love and she is his 'prize'.

First Thoughts After First Day Of Filming

After filming in the 5 bells for the beginning of our narrative, we uploaded our footage from the camera to the editing software Final Cut Express and collated the footage into separate sub clips for easy use. When looking back at our shots our first thought was that there were not enough close up shots of the Matt and Ellie's faces to show emotion. We also decided that we needed to have more extras in the pub. We only had to extras when we filmed which showed that the pub seemed empty and was not busy. This also made it hard to film when Matt and Ellie changed rooms as we could not move our extras into that room as well which meant that the room was empty. We came to the conclusion that we should include more extras in the pub to make it seem busy and lively, we also decided that we should included cut away shots and reaction shots of the extras. These shots should be quick and included them drinking alcohol to represent the pub environment, them laughing and having fun and even shots of them entering the toilets to use the symbolic 'ladies' and 'gents' toilet signs. We also found that our shots were to static. We researched other music videos that were of the same genre and style and found that the camera movements were shaking a lot and were more hand held rather than still to compliment the rock style of music. Therefore, decided that we would also include this style and re-shoot the shots. The lighting of the majority of our shots was very good and the clarity of the shots was exactly what we wanted. However, the lighting in some shots was not the same as it changed depending on the direction the camera was facing. We will correct this by using our own lighting to compensate for the change.

Due to recent unfortunate events and the availability of our actors, we have had to change our main characters from Matt and Ellie to Joe Soden and Nikki Balson. Joe will also now be the lead singer in the performance part of our music video. This was unfortunate but now allows us to refilm the whole of the pub scene again which will allow us to correct everything that we filmed before.

Settings and Landscapes

http://prezi.com/4pfnhu6pmqsv/settings/

This is a link to a presentation that I have made using the website/software called Prezi. The presentation is about  the settings that we will be using whilst filming and explains why we chose each one and what we intend to film there.

Commentary On 'The 5 Bells' Pub

 

This is a commentary over some photos of different areas of the pub that we are going to film in. We talk about the good and bad characteristics of each area and why we would choose to film there.