Finished Video!

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

The first piece of technology we used during our construction and research/ planning and evaluation stages was Blogger (Above). Our group each set up our very own blogger site individually, this is a prime example of how our group used the internet 2.0 during the planning and research stage of making our music video and digipack. We all had a Blogger password hat we each used, and shared the same dashboard. Sharing the same dashboard allowed us to view each others blogs and discuss posts and items we put on. We were also able to add videos and images each other uploaded. This shows how consumers can be producers as we were able to manipulate this website to show our ideas.

During the research and planning stage of our music video, we used google to search for images and inspirations for our music video. 

Google was extremely useful as it is easy to use and has so many images for us to draw inspiration from. Not only were we able to

Above is Youtube which is a mass online video sharing community. Youtube is a prime example of internet 2.0 that we used during our media coursework, we were consumers in that we could view current music videos during our research and planning stage to gain inspiration for our music video, we were producers in that we could upload music videos and then add them on to Facebook (Below) and get users to comment.

Above is Facebook, Facebook is a global social networking site that was extremely useful to us when making our music video and digipack. Facebook is another example of the internet 2.0 as our audience were able to consume our media work that we uploaded but were able to produce as they could comment on our video and give us audience feedback, this was very useful in the evaluation stage of our music video. 

Facebook was also extremely useful during the research and planning stage of our media work as we were able to ask our targeted audience for ideas and feed back on our ideas when creating our music video and digipack.

For editing our music video we used Final Cut Express, which is editing software for the macs that we used, above is an example of us using final cut express when constructing our music video. Final Cut express was extremely difficult to use at first as a beginner, but after using it over the course of creating our music video, I found it got easier and I am now confident with it. Final Cut was brilliant and enabled us to create effects and images within our music video that no other software could. Final Cut was also very reliable and never froze. 

We used final cut to edit and cut our video, using the various effects it had to offer. The effect we used most throughout our video was desaturation, this made our music video black and white and gave it the whole theme that I feel makes it stand out as a strong music video. We also used the posterise feature and tool to split the screen and colour our video. We were also able to edit the sound of our music video as the song was far too long so we had to edit it down. 

Above is an image of an iMac, the iMac was (like Final Cut) difficult to use at first as I am used to windows. After a while I got used to its features and software and I am also confident in knowing my way around a mac. Our mac allowed us to use a number of tools such as Final Cut (above), Safari (which is the internet explorer of the mac that gained us access onto the websites we used. We were also able to use Citrix which allowed us to get onto our emails to share information with each other if one of our group members was not using a mac.

When exporting our video, we used QuickTime player, this was an extremely useful tool as we were able to put our video into a good viewing format to show our teacher when we were getting feedback, it also allowed us to gain feedback from our audience who we invited into the editing suite to view our music video.

Above is the logo for Photoshop, Photoshop was an extremely useful tool for our group when creating the digipack. We used lots of different features and effects that we used on Final Cut, such as, desaturation of images. We highlighted reds in our image to create the vertical intertextual reference from the film "Sin City". This mixed with the intertextual reference of Reservoir Dogs would appeal to our audience. We used the writing feature to create good fonts for our digipack and make our digipack look like a dvd for Sin City.

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

After uploading our music video of,"New Town Centres-Bacalao", to Facebook we received a large amount of comments and "likes". We will take what we have learned from a small focus group we make out of positive and negative commenters, and use what we have learned for any future projects we may be involved with. below are some positive comments we found on the Facebook video.

"Great vid guys!! Haha definitely got the Reservoir Dogs reference...
Would give it a 10/10 lol" -Tom

"Ahh thats so good! Better than the one I made for my school lol. Really liked the whole style of the video.. looked really cool, especially the split screen shots." - Sophie

Sweet! Deffo will come to you for a video when i do my next track. Loved the band shots! Looked like a real performance. - Josh

And below are some negative comments we can gain constructive criticism from.

"Nice! Would be better if you extended the shots of the band walking around?? But quality video all the same" - Luke

"Safe! Should be more band shots though... :p" - Dan

"I really liked it but I dunno, maybe better if there was more shots of the band in the gang?" - Molly

We took these commenters and asked them to join a focus group to which we would ask them questions on our video. I felt as though this focus group would be successful as their is a mix of males and females and they are all into different genre's of music.

Below are the questions we asked the focus group.

What do you think were the stronger parts of our music video?

Tom: I really liked the narrative shots you used, I definitely noticed the films you referenced, especially the reservoir dogs style walking shots. I also liked the Once Upon a Time in the West reference you used in the digipack.

Sophie: I loved the colour scheme within the music video you made. I think the desaturated colours juxtaposed with the multi-coloured split screen shots worked extremely well, making the video have contrast and catch the eye of the viewer.

Josh: I really liked the images of the different band members being put into a split screen then coloured, it looked really cool and made the video flow well. I especially liked the band shots because it looked like an actual gig, really professional. Well done.

Luke: I enjoyed the performance shots, it looked really realistic. I especially liked the close ups of the different band members playing their instruments. I also liked the split screens of different band members.

Dan: The band shots looked awesome, especially the close ups and the split screens.

Molly: The best bit for me was the performance shots, the band had lots of energy and the quick editing and various cinematography really showed this.

What do you think were the weaker parts of our music video?

Tom: I felt as though the video was great and I can't think of many bad points. However, I feel as though the reservoir dogs style shots should have been expanded on.

Sophie: The scenes where the band are walking down the street should have perhaps been made longer and maybe had some more narrative.

Josh: I did like the band shots and thought they were really realistic. However, I feel as though you should have made the split screen shots more frequent, was a really cool effect.

Luke: When the band members were walking down the road I didn't quite understand where they were going? although it did look really epic.

Dan: There should have been more close ups of the lead singer while singing on stage, but it was a top effort.

Molly: I loved the shots of the band walking around in a gang formation. I think it would have been better if you used more of these shots.

If you could change one thing in the video, what would it be and why?

Tom: I would probably change the amount of screen time the narrative shots have as it would have set up a good video.

Sophie: The same as Tom really, it is an awesome video just the narrative shots could have been longer.

Josh: I would probably add in more effects to make the video look more futuristic.

Luke: I would also say the same as Tom, it could have been more of a narrative behind the gang scenes to make the video have a better structure, although it has a really good structure any way.

Dan: I would add in more shots of the lead singer on stage because it would have made the band shots more realistic.

Molly: I feel as though you should have perhaps used more narrative shots, it would make the video seem more cinematic. 

What I can draw from this focus group

From what I have found in my audience research I have come to the conclusion that if I were to make the video again, I would do the following....

1) Make the narrative shots longer, adding more structure
2) Showing more shots of the singer on stage, giving a more realistic feel to the live performance
3) Using more split screens within the video
4) Show the gang scenes have more narrative, adding perhaps a small story line
5) Keeping in the vertical intertextual reference from various films

2: How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary task/text

Script

Introduction

Group: Hello I am (names) and this is our analyses of our main product and ancillary task. In this video we will be answering How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary task.

Ewan: We feel as though the editing within our main product was quite effective as it appealed to the target audiences' needs that they expressed during the audience research stage

James: We used a vertical intertextual reference from Tarintino's reservoir dogs when editing our video, we used this because our target audience will understand the visual signs connoted making our video effective by appealing to them

Lauren: We desaturated our video (making it black and white) as we were influenced by the dvd cover of reservoir dogs which was black and white. This would make our video effectively target our audience because it is a style that would appeal to them as in the audience research, the majority wanted the video shot in black and white

Ewan: We edited some shots in colour to contrast the desaturation of the majority of the video, this is effective as it cross breeds our genre of rockerbilly with conventions and forms of a pop video, this will allow our audience to watch something they would not usually see within their preferred genre. 

James: The music video’s target audience is the 18-25 year old male demographic who are white and middle to working class. This audience has been targeted within the music video, as the characters represented are young white males, mirroring the target audience. The Paradigms of a gang of teenagers dressed smartly walking down a street within the narrative scenes create a dark syntagm of youth crime which the media has created a folk devil out of, intriguing the target audience as it has an element of danger.
Lauren: The road that the characters are walking on creates the metonym of an open road being freedom for the young gang members. The band members performing on stage (who are the same as the gang members) are also represented as white young males who are performing at a gig, this will appeal to the target audience who are into a live music culture.

Ewan: The semiotics of the music video connotes the songs genre of alternative/rock, predominantly through the videos mise-en-scène, which uses many conventions synonymous to the rock/alternative genre that can be found in real products. The paradigms of having the props of musical instruments such as; the guitar, drums and bass are all iconic signs of rock music, the setting of being on a stage for the performance shots and the costumes of smart/casual clothing worn with sunglasses creates the syntagm of an alternative rock band.

James: The performance shots juxtaposed with the narrative shots of the band walking which is a direct vertical inter textual reference from Tarintino’s Reservoir Dogs creates the indexical sign of criminality and a rock and roll lifestyle, this is through the target audiences’ understanding of the Reservoir Dogs reference which has been parodied, pastiched and paid homage to in various other texts that they may have seen.

Lauren: Within the editing of the music video, standard forms and conventions of the genre were challenged as there were some split screens which were brightly covered, this was a horizontal inter textual reference to pop music videos, a genre that contrasts greatly to the alternative/rock genre, giving the audience an image they may have not seen before. 

Ewan: The music video contains a vertical reference within the editing; the majority of the music video is desaturated (Black and White) which is a reference to the Tarintino film, Reservoir Dogs. This also developed forms and conventions of previous media texts as the video cross breads ideas of music videos and films. The cutting of the video challenges forms and conventions of the genre as usually, alternative/rock videos are quickly cut whereas this music video contains many fades and dissolves, making the music video look quite contemporary and different to previous texts.

James: The cinematography uses forms and conventions found in previous music videos such as the close-up shot. The close-up shot of the drums connotes the metonym of rock and roll as it is an image synonymous with the genre. This close-up shot also uses forms and conventions previously used in music videos as it shows the musicians performing, giving a live gig feel as the genre of the song is based heavily on live music and. 

Lauren: The video challenges conventions from previous music videos as well in the performance shots as, wherein previous videos they use a dolly for performance shots (Arctic Monkeys-I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor 2005) In our music video we used hand held shots to create an even more live feel, to make the audience feel as though they were actually at a gig. 

Music Video Self Analysis: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

The song for our music video is an Alternative/Rock song with witty humorous lyrics, the lyrics have no deep or emotive meaning and are about a somewhat comical subject matter (a straight man accidentally dancing with a homosexual), the song is cool and upbeat, so as a group we decided to focus heavily on the generic rock and roll lifestyle for our music video, using, developing and challenging forms and conventions within that genre to appeal to our audience.

Mise-en-scène, Representation & Performance

 From looking at real media products with the same target audience and genre as our song for influence, we found many forms and conventions. When studying other music videos, we looked at representations of social groups and we applied what we found to our music video, using, developing and challenging forms and conventions. We used many conventions synonymous to the rock/alternative genre that we found in real products such as the mise-en-scène in the genre. The main part of the mise-en-scène in alternative/rock videos we looked at were the instruments and band members performing (Below is an image of the band and their instruments). 

The semiotics of the music video connotes the songs genre of alternative/rock, predominantly through the videos mise-en-scène. The above image shows how we used conventions of the alternative/rock genre in the mise-en-scène of the video, the band are all in typical order, singer front centre, guitarist left, bassist right and drummer at the back. This typical band line-up was not only due to other music videos we saw but also due to audience research wanting standard band scenes. The band are all also playing instruments such as guitars and drums which are metonyms for the rock/alternative music genre. 

The below image shows how we used mise-en-scène in the narrative shots to develop forms and conventions of our genre within the music video

The location of the street is developed from the conventions of videos we studied wherein the characters were shown to be cool and casual, and also in a gang. The mise-en-scène of having the characters in a gang formation is from inspirations from inter textual analysis of Quentin Tarintino's Reservoir Dog's which had the same target audience as the song for my music video. We developed the iconic signs within the text of the middle aged gangsters walking across a sunny Californian street to a gang of teenagers walking down a street in gritty England, this scene could be interoperated as a parody as it does not take itself too seriously or a genuine reference to Reservoir Dogs as it contains a dark undertone as it is an image of a teenage gang which the media has created a folk devil out of. The Paradigms of a gang of teenagers dressed smartly walking down a street creates a dark syntagm of youth crime. The road that the characters are walking on creates the metaphor of an open road being freedom for the young gang members. 

We also challenged the conventions of the genre within the mise-en-scène as (seen in the above image) we set the narrative shots in a relatively suburban location as opposed to an inner city, this paradigm alters the syntagm of the video, catering for a wider audience as it has connotations of average suburban life as well as crime. It could also be argued that not only did we develop the gang idea from Reservoir Dogs by using teenagers, we challenged the forms and conventions of previous media texts as most gangster genre films use middle aged characters wherein we used teenagers in our music video. We also challenged the forms and conventions of previous music videos within the genre by referencing scenes from a different type of media, we referenced scenes from a film in our music video. We challenged forms and conventions within the performance shots (shown in the top image) by having all band members apart from the lead singer sitting down, this arbitrary sign connotes importance of the lead singer and how cool and laid back the other band members are in comparison to the lead singer jumping and dancing around the stage, drawing attention, this challenges forms and conventions of previous videos as in other texts we studied we saw the other musicians being very energetic on stage and trying to draw attention to themselves as well. The performance shots juxtaposed with the narrative shots of the band walking which is a direct vertical inter textual reference from Tarintino’s Reservoir Dogs creates the indexical sign of criminality and a rock and roll lifestyle, this is through the target audiences’ understanding of the Reservoir Dogs reference which has been parodied, pastiched and paid homage to in various other texts that they may have seen.

Cinematography 

From looking at previous music videos of the same genre as our song, we looked at the forms and conventions they held and we decided on how we would use, develop and challenge them with the cinematography of our music video. 

The Above image shows how we used forms and conventions we found in previous music videos such as the close-up shot. The close-up shot of the drums connotes the metonym of rock and roll as it is an image synonymous with the genre. This close-up shot also uses forms and conventions previously used in music videos as it shows the musicians performing, giving a live gig feel as the genre of our song is based heavily on live music and we wanted to recreate that for our target audience who enjoy live music shows. We Challenged conventions from previous music videos as well in the performance shots as, wherein previous videos they use a dolly for performance shots (Arctic Monkeys-I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor 2005) In our music video we used hand held shots to create an even more live feel, to make the audience feel as though they were actually at a gig. 

The above image shows a long shot of the band, we developed forms and conventions of previous videos here as we showed the band walking around like in other videos but we used a long-shot to give the audience the impression they were a passer by looking on as the band walked casually down the road, almost from a POV view.

Editing

When editing our music video, we kept in mind what we have seen from real media products we have studied and used them for inspiration; trying to use develop and challenge forms and conventions we found.

The above shot shows how we challenged forms and conventions of real music videos of the same genre as ours. In this shot we used a split screen to show multiple images of the bands' performance, we also used different colours to connote a pop art style image like something Andy Warhol would make. Each of these paradigms contain forms and conventions synonymous with a pop music video syntagm, a genre that clashes with the alternative/rock genre of our music video, I feel that this challenges forms and conventions of real media texts greatly as the audience of my music video will not be use to seeing conventions of a genre of music video they may not usually watch.

The above image shows how we have used a convention of a vertical reference when editing the colour of the music video; the majority of the music video is desaturated (Black and White) which is a reference to the Tarintino film, Reservoir Dogs. This also developed forms and conventions of previous media texts as we cross bread ideas of music videos and films when creating our music video. The cutting of our video challenges forms and conventions of our genre as usually, alternative/rock videos are quickly cut whereas our video contains many fades and dissolves, we felt this made our music video look quite contemporary and different to previous texts.

Digipack 

Below is an image of our digipack

 In the above image you can see that the main colour scheme of the digipack is black and white, with certain items highlighted in red, this was to use the conventions from vertical intertextual references from Sin City the film to which we drew much inspiration from (Below).

The desaturated image we used creates an indexical sign for film noir, which is a theme contained within our music video.

The above image shows the poster for our digipack. The image is in an almost sepia tone, which is a convention that we challenged as not many images within the alternative/rock genre contain sepai tones, if any do at all.

Ancillary task : CD cover and Album advert

Below is the finished album cover. The top image is of the inside of the album, the bottom left is the back and the bottom right is the front.

Below is the advertisement for the album

Intertextual Inspirations for our Album Artwork

For the design of our CD cover we looked at different texts for inspiration. Not only did we look at current album artwork for CD's, we also looked at album artwork for films that would appeal to the same target audience as our music video. 

Reservoir Dogs (1992 Tarintino) is a film that we have gained much inspiration from as a group (Walking shots) I feel as though this album cover has connotations of danger and crime which is kind of what I would like my digipack cover to have. 

Below are some album artwork covers I have researched to get ideas.

Above is the current album artwork for the band we made our music video for, "The New Town Centres". I like the colour scheme within the text, as yellow hue, shown on the title and the cover image, I like the way the colour makes the image look as though it has been taken in a tunnel. I like the suit in the background of the album artwork, the image of the suit ties in with key ideas and themes within the music video we made. This artwork will appeal to our chosen target audience as it is an image of masculinity and style which our audience will like.

I will take ideas from this album artwork cover into consideration as it ties into ideas we have for our music video.

Above is another image of the same album by our chosen band. The rusty block letters in the artwork are extremely effective and would appeal to the audience of our video as it includes rusty urban themes which our video includes. I like the lighting on this video, particularly the shadows from the letters. This is a good example of an album artwork cover, however, I think our album artwork should include some band members and actors from the video. It should also be in black and white to tie in with our video.s and actors from the video. It should also be in black and white to tie in with our video. 

Editing Finished

Below are some screen grabs of the editing process.

Music video screengrabs

We have finally finished editing our media film and below are some screenshorts of the finished music video!

Previous students work

After looking at students from last year's media class we have gained on inspiration on what to do (and what not to do) for our music video.

After looking at one video which has a similar target audience, we took notes on what effects it used. The main effect we found on that video was that the video was desaturated and posterised, we found that this effect worked well on our video as it made the band scenes look very cool and alternative, it made the video look more vintage and 50's as well.

Final Filming... Done!

Today we managed to get all cast and crew together (as exams were over and weather was fine) to film the final narrative shots for our film.

The film went extremely well as we stuck to a strict storyboard which enabled us to have great direction when filming. We used Facebook and text messaging to gather all of our actors and make sure they came with the correct resources eg, costume (smart and cool clothing), props (sunglasses)and lots of hair gel (for that rockerbilly look). We based our filming on the reservoir dogs on a below post. We thought that this would make a good narrative sequence as it is extremely cool and rock'n'roll which is the exact image we were going for. We feel as though this sequence will appeal especially to our targeted audience as the film is aimed at the same audience and they would have most likely seen it if not recognise the scene anyway due to it being a very famous scene within cinema.

Preliminary Edit of the video. (Extremely basic edit)

This is an extremely basic edit of the video. Due to weather and exams (See below) we have been unable to film the narrative shots of the video.

Exams

For this past week we have been unable to film due to all of our actors having exams on different days. We may have to organise a completely new date next week when exams finish so we are able to get all actors in our film. Weather is also a huge problem at the moment as it has been raining a lot recently which is also made it impossible to film. We are now waiting on a new filming date wherein all actors are available to be confirmed. Unfortunately we are unable to predict the weather so we're keeping our fingers crossed for sunshine. 

Ideas

For our narrative shots, we came up with the idea of mimicking the opening sequence to Quentin Tarintino's "Reservoir Dogs". Unfortunately, I could not find any embeddable videos of the actual film, so I used this fan video from Youtube. I feel as though this idea will work well and appeal to our target audience specifically because we are using a retro song for the video and the audience would be interested in retro culture, music and cinema. This scene is also very cool and gives the actors a rockstar image that would appeal to the audience.

Preliminary editing of performance shots for Bacalao music video

Why our music video will appeal to the targeted audience

The target audience we are aiming for is quite a niche one, an alternative retro,"Rockerbilly", image. People of that image are interested in: rock & roll music, the clothing (and the hair) styles, rebellion and recklessness. Our video contains all of this criteria so will appeal to the target audience well. The video will contain some scenes of a band playing the music live which will appeal to the audience's love of live music and gigs. It will also contain,"Rockerbillys", styled in the way that the audience will relate to, causing trouble in pubs and on the streets.

The target audience are quirky and light hearted, we will cater to this by making the video eccentric and quite humorous. Despite maintaining the rockerbilly image and not in any way, mock the genre.

these are all images of Rockerbillys, to give an idea of the lifestyle and image:

Editing

After making a successful film, we began the editing process. Despite having some scenes still to shoot, we started putting our film into order. The biggest problem we came across in the editing process was that of timing, it is nearly impossible to edit a band to play in tune with music, especially as the band were playing quite poorly due to us not giving them enough time to learn the song. The product we had was good and we felt as though we could place in the narrative scenes we had yet to film with ease.

Had we the chance to do this again we would have deffinately allowed our actors to learn the song before they performed it.

Filming

The original idea for our film didn't quite go to plan due to many issues. One of the main issues we encountered was that of location. We had originally planned to shoot the video in the music block but were unfortunately unable to, after scouting out more locations, we found a pretty decent one in one of the school halls. However..

The next time we shot, we found a better location in the school main hall, which included a stage, back stage area and stage lighting. This was the perfect location for our film and when scouted, we began shooting straight away. We rounded up our actors who all played musical instruments to perform for the video. The actors and there roles are....
-Martyn Nash - Drums
Martyn's primary job is to play drums and look cool.
-Louis Bozzi-Catlin - Bass
-James Labdabs - Guitar
-James Ward - Vocals

For our instruments, we begged borrowed and stole (mainly begged) from the music department at the school. We got a sound engineer in the year below to help out with the lighting, which made a lot of difference on the final product as we felt it looked very professional