Finale

"Music in itself carries a whole set of messages which are very, very rich and complex, and the words either serve to exclude certain ones or point up certain others."- Brian Eno.

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Looking back on the research, planning, development, Shooting and Editing of my media product there are lots of things I would do differently. Our song choice was aimed at a very niche audience and this meant that the video had to be in a niche style. This meant going against most of the Keith Negus’s conventions that are laid out. We had to think of a music video that would go with the song and this particular song was not really like anything else we had heard before this showed to be an everlasting burden. Even when we constructed some ideas and found a location, it would fall through even when it looked like it could not. This happened to us on very short notice and so we had to think of another idea very quickly. In the end we shot in the studio with a very simplistic setting. However in saying that we also set out to create something original and different and to a certain level I believe that we achieved that.

If I had to go through the process again I would certainly choose a more mainstream song and conform to Negus’s conventions more. I think a mistake we made was being too ambitious in being original on our first try at producing and creating a pop video. As we set ourselves more of a challenge and completed it, we had the comfort of achievement.

Blog Task 3: Audience – What I learnt from my audience feedback:

To evaluate audience feedback we took data from various sources. Some of these sources included a focus group of which we asked questions and family members who gave feedback. Throughout showing people the video I used open questions and realised this was a small scale trial of the video and the ancillary products.

Our target audience was A, B and C on the Jictar scale. We found through research and first-hand knowledge that bluegrass music appealed to more educated people who were ambitious. This maybe because the music is less easy to listen to and requires a bit more thought to get your head around the instrumentation and structure. Bluegrass music tends to attract an older audience as well. The people who listen to this type of music tend to be 35 or older. Bluegrass can appeal to both genders as it is purely judged musically and not on image.
We wanted to address a few points to the audience such weather they enjoyed the viewing or not and did they understand the message that we were trying to get across. The message of our song was about a girl who was running around recklessly and not thinking about the consequence. We tried to portray this through the spinning of the camera and the lively live performance.

For our focus group we had a group of intelligent and active 17 year olds. We had 11 people in our focus group. 4 of these people were girls and the other 7 were boys. We decided to have an open discussion with the focus group rather than a questionnaire as we felt they could express themselves more freely with speech. We also thought that this would be a good idea as a more serious approach would be taken if we spoke to them and this would give us better answers. At the start of the focus group we showed them the video so that is was fresh in their minds. After that we had a list of 10 questions prepared to ask. As we asked the questions we encouraged them to talk honestly and freely as we wanted the best feedback possible. If someone had an opinion about something then we would ask “does anyone disagree with this statement”.

The questions we asked were:
What did you think of the video overall?
What message do you think was being portrayed?
Do you agree with this message?
How is the each member of the band represented?
Did they think you had the potential to be stars?
Is the video entertaining?
Do you identify with any of the band members?
What do u think could be improved?
Did you find the spinning distracting?

The best responses were:
Do you identify with any of the band members?
No
Too old
Too niche market and to related.

Do you agree with this message?
Yes it looked like they were having fun

What message do you think was being portrayed?
Having a good time,
Fun and Care free

Did you find the spinning distracting?
Yes

Out of 10 what would you give it?

9/8/7 majority over 5 - only one said under 5 of which said 4
We tried to use the theory of Blumler and Katz on ‘uses and gratifications’ to asses our audience response. Blumler and Katz say that audiences respond in 4 ways. The question was did ours respond to our pop video in this way. Blumler and Katz listed 4 broad needs which need to be fulfilled by watching TV.

These are:
1. Diversion – a form of escape or emotional release from everyday pressures.
2. Personal Relationships – companionship via TV personalities and characters and sociability through discussion about TV with other people.
3. Personal Identity – the ability to compare one’s life with the characters and situations within programmes and hence explore personal problems and perspectives.
4. Surveillance - a supply of information about ‘what’s going on’ in the world.

Our video demonstrates diversion as it can be seen as an escape from everyday realities. This is displayed by the mise en scene having the same person in it twice. This would be impossible in real life however due to editing software we are able to create images that would otherwise not be possible. Our entire group agreed that the pop video was highly entertaining. Blumler and Katz say that a media text has to occupy the viewer for 70% of the time to be diverting. The 4 girls all agreed that they did not concentrate for 70%, however they still believed that they were diverted. The 7 boys all said that they were occupied for over 70% of the time.

Stuart Hall explains that there are different ways that the audience can interpret the product. There is a preferred meaning, a negotiated meaning and an oppositional meaning. Our video is aimed at a niche audience who like bluegrass music. This is usually people who are over the age of 35. An oppositional audience will oppose to the music as they would prefer something more commercial and easy to listen to. A negotiated audience will understand why people like the music however they will not choose to listen to it on a regular basis. A preferred audience will love the music and choose to listen to it on a regular basis.

Director's Commentary-Audio Recording

This is Josh and me explaining what shots we used and why we used them. We went through the video before hand and critically analysed it and breaking it down, so we could explain it. Director's commentry are used so that the audience have a better understanding of the shots and to reveal what message the director was trying to get across.

BLOG TASK 2: HOW EFFECTIVE THE COMBINATION OF MY MAIN PRODUCT AND ANCILLARY TEXT IS.

Blog task 2

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Creation of Digipack

We used the same layout for the design of our digipack and our magazine advert. A digipack is a virtual booklet that is within a cd case, and is what usually comes with the CD. It usually contains the track list to the album, the lyrics to the songs and other details about the band. We went for the same layout as the magazine advert by having a faded vintage background with the same logos as last time. However our digipack contained the lyrics to the song and promotional pictures of the band to present them in a good light and promote their image.

The front cover to the digipack displays the band on stage with their instruments. The image is faded using effects in Photoshop, our editing and creation software.

The digipack is what people see the CD as, so when there in a shop the design needs to stand out, but also reflect on the bands image. The font that we used for our design was fairly wild to reflect off the message of the song, where a girl is running free and not caring.

The first inlay has the same background as the rest of the designs. There are 4 pictures of the band on this though. They are all close ups on the bands instruments, all in black and white except the top left. According to the rule of thrids, the eye reads fromt the left, so the first image that would be viewed would be the colour picture of one of the girl's.

The second inlay again carries the same background with the lyrics inside. The lyrics are placed on the left hand side of the page and two pictures are located on the right. One of them is an iconic Jack Daniel’s logo with the Toy Hearts writing. Below that is one of the Toy Hearts actual logos. This is a heart with ‘Toy Hearts’ logo, designed to look like a tatto.

The back cover displays the track list to the album. This panel displays the songs written by the band and gives the number of tracks on the album. Again we used the same vintage background and had a curly font. We used the picture of a double bass player in black and white with the same frame format to keep continuity. The black and white photo displays the bands elegance and promotes them in a proffesional way.

Creation of Magazine Advert

We wanted to promote the band as much as possible through the advert that we created so that record sales would be as high as possible. We tried to incorporate the bands image of being vintage with a modern twist into the advert as well to promote their image as well as their music. We decided to use a faded background which looked old and vintage and from that we started to layer up other ideas. The magazine advert contains the band’s name, contact details, a picture of the band and some iconic images to enhance their image. We used a photo of the band where they are all standing on stage with their instruments. We then used effects to fade the picture on Photoshop. We used four images to fill out the rest of the advert as well. We have a picture of a cartoon woman who is a sex icon, from the 1950’s and underneath that we have placed an old Coca Cola sticker. We also got a picture of an American flag to symbolise the type of music that the band make (South American Folk). We have also placed some pictures of playing cards to fill out the page a bit. Tour dates are on the right hand side of the advert, with different venues and times. We felt it was important to keep it simple because it would not be viewed for long, so we needed as little information as possible so that it is more likely that the reader will remember it.Using the rule of thirds can help this. We laid out the design so that the eye line would cross the girls face first and then the tour dates along with the picture of the band.The software we used to create the advert was Photoshop. This software enabled us to completely create the poster.

Blog Task 1, In what ways do your media products use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

For our pop video, we researched different bands of a similar style of music to our band. One of these was ‘Little Lion Man’ by ‘Mumford and Sons’. http://www.mumfordandsons.com/. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X7bHe--mp1g We also looked at various other blue grass bands and singers from the USA, and various folk singers in the UK. these included people like Joan Baez and Bob Dylan, Peter Seeger, Johnny Cash etc..















We viewed the video of the Mumfords and then deconstructed it to see how it made and what made it effective. We then discussed how we could use some of these techniques in our video and started to build upon a few ideas. Keith Negus says that there are 11 major conventions that make up a pop video:
• The explicit and unashamed promotions of the artist’s image as a specific product with a brand identity, ready for mass consumption
• The featuring of the artist
• A wide and extensive use of shot types, camera angles and movement.
• Repetition of reoccurring thematic elements and generically specific iconography
• A possible narrative structure
• A possible performance element
• The flexibility to disregard realism
• Shots cut tightly to the beat of the track
• Use of special effects such as lighting, animations, CGIs, in camera effects
• A carefully constructed mise en scene appropriate to the content and tone of the track
• High impact instantly.
We looked to imitate the pop videos that we researched to give plaisir, the pleasure of the expected and also subvert the conventions in order to give jouissance, something new or unexpected in Barthes terms.

Folk music and blue grass such as the Mumford pop video is much more about the performance, the atmospher, the feel of the band and the particular message of the song rather than any comercial exhibitionism, as Carlesson calls it. so we knew that our pop video would have to explore the characters of the band members through the performance to add to the message. The digipak cover and the magazine advert were there to build on that atmosphere and nature of the band.

The message to our song is about a girl who is care free and enjoying life whilst not thinking about the consequences. The song is mainly about having fun and not caring what other people think. Our video was mainly performance based; however the camera was always spinning, creating an exciting feel to go with the upbeat tempo of the track. We have a shot of a bar with people drinking and listening to the band and having a good time. This was to reinforce the idea that the song was about having fun and not thinking about the consequences. Our band has a very South American Folk feel to them. They describe themselves as vintage with a modern twist. We tried to convey this by having shots of the band drinking Jack Daniel’s and shots of folk instruments such as the banjo. the Coca cola image and the Jack Daniels lable are so iconic of American and also the south where this type of music comes from, that we were able to use them to immediately connete the image we wanted to.

This was the last shot used in the video, it is the whole band about to bow to the audience. In the mise en scene the band are elegantly lined up, gracefully holding their instruments demonstrating their vintage feel. They are displayed as proper musicians who write and perform all of their music themselves. The band look at themselves as vintage with a modern twist with the girls at the front of the band as the singers and therefore the main part of the image. So using the rule of thirds they are in the reading line so that they are one of the first things that a viewer would see. The lighting we used in this was to directly light the subjects so that there was no other distractions on the screen. We did this so we did not over complicate the shots as the camera was always moving and it might be too much for the audience to take in if there is a busy background as well.

This shot demonstrates the flexibility to disregard realism which is one of Keith Negus’s conventions of making a pop video. The shot displays the same person in the mise en scene, something that would be impossible in real life. This songs meaning is about a girl who is running wild and care free and this shot enhances the meaning of not caring and running wild. There are lots of shots of the two girls as they are one of the attractions to the audience and this would hopefully create more of a high impact and so keep people watching if they were flicking through music videos. Having a high impact is another one of Keith Negus’s common generic conventions. We were trying to imitate this convention of a pop video.

This next shot shows the two girls playing their instruments and singing together. They are constantly shown as part of the explicit and unashamed promotion of the band. They are the two centre pieces of the band and are shown to be the main selling point. The song could be written about these girls as it suggests that a girl is running wild and having fun and we tried to portray this in our video by having a playful performance by the two girls. We also used a constant pan in our video to try and make the video more exiting and match up with the meaning of the song better. In our video we shot different lengths, for example we shot close ups, mid-shots and wide-shots. Here we decided to use a midshot, mainly focusing on the girls guitars.

Then next shot is of the banjo player. This shot displays him sitting in an arm chair next to his banjo. This was visually pleasing and appropriate to the mise en scene and to the message of the song. This shot displays the bands relaxed attitude to playing and shows that they do not care what other people think. The fact that shot is being panned as well, gives a more exiting effect and reinforces one of Keith Negus’s conventions to disregard realism.

We decided to try and make the promotional poster simple but effective. The bands image is vintage with a modern twist on American folk music. The background to our poster was an old, faded piece of paper which looked almost like a cartoon pirate map. We then got a 1940’s Coca-Cola logo, a cartoon lady and some playing cards and placed these in the left hand side of the poster. We did this on the rule of thirds so the eye line would see the attractive woman first. We then had tour dates on the right hand side, with sold out logo’s over them. Finally we had the band’s name at the top of the poster. The colours used in our poster are quite faded to make the design look older and more vintage.

The next photo is one of the panels from digipack that we made. We used the same design as the poster to keep continuity. However we placed a picture of the band on stage into the design. We used effects on Photoshop to make the image look more faded. We also used the same text for the band name to keep continuity and the same pictures. The vintage feel of the colours reinforces the bands image of being vintage with a modern twist.

This is another panel from the digipack and has the same template as the last two pictures, however this panel has the track list of the album and a black and white picture of the double bass player. This again reinforces the bands image of being vintage. Different font has been used to the name of the band on the poster. A more elegant and encrypted font has been chosen to enhance the elegance of the music.

Task 4: New media technologies: A director’s commentary on how I used new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation

'Dital Technology rules the world and then some', says Nicholas Negroponte, a proffesor at MIT in the USA. New media technology is digital technology and it enabled us to work quicker, faster, better and to be far more creative from start to finish of our production.

I will analyse how new media helped in all five stages of the production. But I noticed especially how useful it was at the shooting stage in terms of ratio. This is the relationship between the number of shots taken in the rushes (363) compared to the number of shots actually used in the final cut (41), which gives you a ratio of 9:1. By having this many shots we could be more creative in the editing. we had this many shots because the digital camera is so small, easy to move and is very easy to light for. Digital technology our production indeed.

New media technologies are recently discovered electronics which are more efficient and better quality. Digital technologies use binary code which transfers information via a code combined of ones and zeros.

This is a big step from analogue technology which was slow, low quality and expensive. New media technology enables film crews to shoot more material, with better quality, less lighting time and to edit it more easily. Our group used new media technologies at all stages of production. The internet was used as a research base for looking up are group’s genre of music. When construction our shoot we used high definition digital camera’s for a clear and pristine picture. For editing we use final cut pro and color.

Maltby’s 5 stages of production are: research and development, planning, construction, post production and distributions. New media technologies are used in all of these stages of planning and were a vital part of the overall construction of our music video. New media technology was important at every stage and made the process quicker, easier and more effective.

For our research we used the internet to look up the competition and what was in the bands previous video. We also looked up the genre of music that our band played. We found that their style was a kind of south American bluegrass. So we needed to create this feel in our video. We were able to contact the band via email as well to send them our ideas. This then allowed us to create a video that we thought the band would like as well. They also sent us some suggestions over which we took into consideration and developed ideas on top of those or incorporated them with some ideas we already had. New media technologies such as email and the internet made are life a lot easier as research was easily accessible and fast contact was also possible and this led to more prepared planning.

For our original location myself and anther group member went to take pictures to plan out which rooms we were going to use on the day of the shoot. The digital camera we used is based on new media technologies. Unfortunately we were not able to film there due to complaints about the noise vibrations. However we did take advantage of digital cameras so that we could have a plan and if we had the location it would of helped us massively. We would of also constructed a storyboard using our digital pictures if we were allowed to shoot on that particular location.

On the actual shoot day we used a digital camera, the Sony Z1 and DSR 570, which are very mobile and this allowed us to shoot more shots and therefore have a bigger variety to choose from when it came to editing. Overall our group finished with 147 shots and we were able to view these shots easily and quickly using Final Cut Pro. Since we had a ratio of 4:1 we could be very creative. The high ratio means we could choose from 4 shots to every one the 35 that we eventually put in out film. So due to new media technologies there are lot more possibilities of what we can do and these are much faster and better quality than older technologies. We also had are camera linked to a flat screen T.V behind the set so people could see what the footage looked like on a big screen in the rough. Since our camera’s were so small and compact and easy to move, we could try various tracking and crane shots without worrying about involved lighting setup’s. This meant that when we had done a 2 shot from the front of the two girl singers we could then do a side shot of each and a high shot and a tracking shot because it did not take that much time.

Due to new media technologies editing was made a lot easier as we were able to view the footage very easily and then cut it quickly so that it was ready for constructing the music video. Are footage was uploaded to final cut pro and this program allowed us to use effects such as edge wipe and change the colour gradient. This would have been very hard to do when cutting the actual 35mm film and would of taken much longer. Therefore new media technologies are more efficient, faster and better quality as digital triples the quality analogue.

Distribution can be used through new media technologies such as the internet and email. Websites such as ‘YouTube’ can be used for viewing and distributing a video online with very easy access.

Due to the internet videos can be easily watched and therefore it will help spread the hype about a band. New media technologies also help with advertising and marketing a product. We used YouTube to upload are video so that a worldwide audience could view it and also a comment box is accessible so that comments and feedback may be left. Overall New Media technologies have made a lot more things possible due to their increasing efficiency and compatible size which makes film making easier. Thanks to camera’s becoming smaller and more mobile more footage is able to be shot and therefore more material to choose from when editing. Software such as final cut pro has made editing easier and more ideal and the internet has allowed us to have viral distribution and marketing which is simple but effective. In all stages of planning I have used new media technologies as they are quick and efficient.