FINAL POST

"After silence, that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible is music" Aldous Huxley

Music is often used to express our emotions. It can connect with us on a deep level and we have been shown to prefer music which describes our current mood state, therefore liking different music at different times. Our piece, due to the absence of lyrics can be interpreted in many ways and therefore can express many emotions.

To conclude the years work on the video, I would say that it went well. We successfully managed to impose a narrative on a song which had no lyrics which was hard to do but we feel that we have managed to achieve a successful narrative to the song. We managed to successfully subvert and conform to various forms and conventions of music videos and applied various theorists ideas and views to the piece. Overall I would say we were proud of the work.

BLOG TASK 3: WHAT I HAVE LEARNT FROM MY AUDIENCE FEEDBACK

To gain audience feedback we used various different techniques and sources. Our first way of getting audience feedback was by uploading the video to Facebook. A social networking site, Facebook is the best place in order to get personal comments from audience members. The feedback was entirely positive, all comments were complimenting the videos and there were up to 15 ‘likes’ which in Facebook terms is a sign that the item is popular. A criticism however that can be used against using Facebook would be the fact that responding is optional, and perhaps only those who enjoyed the product decided to respond. There is no way of seeing how many people have viewed the video therefore the people who positively commented or liked the video may only represent a minority of viewers.



We also used a focus group in the task of gaining audience feedback. We asked our group the following questions,

1) Did you enjoy it? Why?
2) What did you get out of it?
3) What did you think the message of the story was?
4) Did you think the brand was established? How?
5) Do you think it is sexist/bias in any way?
6) Did you identify with any of the characters? How? Who?
7) Did it tell you anything about relationships?
8) Did it give you any information about the world today?
9) What is the official image that you received?
10) How do you think it can be improved?




The concept of Audience can be used to critically evaluate our media product as the audience response is used as a key way of measuring the success of the video. Through the use of the new media technology of Youtube, we posted the video up there for people to watch and to respond as the whether they liked it or how they felt. A specific example of response from the audience was from Youtube user, Skeme14. Skeme14 commented saying “yesssss this video is ill”. The term ill, although used out of context and not used in its correct meaning, can be translated positively as a good comment about the video. By looking at the terminology of the statement, we can gather that Skeme14 is a great example of the audience we were trying to aim at. He uses young and ‘street’ dialect and as our video consists of characters that Skeme14 could possibly relate to or look up too, it shows that we have managed to hit the audience originally aimed for. Another example of strong audience feed back is from Youtube user bonesbilly545 who simply stated, “this is amazing”. Another sign of how the audience consumed the media product. We can tell by looking at bonesbilly545’s Youtube channel that he is another member of the audience we were aiming for as he has liked music videos with similar styles to ours.



Another way of detecting audience opinion on Youtube is by using the popularity bar. Having had 9 likes and 0 dislikes, we can take this as excellent audience feedback.

DIRECTOR'S COMMENTARY

We added in a director's commentary to our piece for those who are interested in finding out more about the piece. It is designed to assist audiences with the narrative and to point out things which they may have missed. We chose JJ and I to do the narrative as we went with the male theme of the video.

TASK TWO - HOW EFFECTIVE IS THE COMBINATION OF MY MAIN PRODUCT AND ANCILLARY TEXTS? A POWERPOINT PRESENTATION.

How effective is the combination of my main product and my ancillary text?

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I answered this task with a powerpoint which explored how my pop video worked with my magazine advert and digipack cover and vice versa. I also tried to apply the ideas of Dyer, Carlsson and Levi Strauss.

CREATING THE MAGAZINE ADVERT

The importance of the magazine advert is that it is what first draws in an audience, it gives off the first image of the artist and as it can be edited to the smallest detail, it can give off the exact image in which you want to give. When creating our magazine advert, we aimed to give a rebellious, individual and edgy look to our artist. Named D'Artagnan, even the name is non conformist as it is the name of the protagonist in The three musketeers by Alexandre Dumas. The character D'artagnan is not in fact one of the three musketeers, but instead their 'guard'. The musketeers are rebels, as is D'Artagnan, and the name implies that he is the guard for all outsiders and rebels ready to fight against the system.
The type of music is not mainstream therefore it was important to try and appeal to a niche group. Selecting what type of magazine it was to be placed in was tricky, we decided magazines like Q and NME would generally be good readers are keen music fans and always open to listen to new types of music. The feel of the advert, like the CD cover was electronic to reflect the nature of the music and we used graphics to put this image forward.

DIGIPACK COVER - CREATING IT

The digipack is the term used to describe information given and released with the CD of an artist. It generally contains the track listings, information about the artist and a few images relating to the such artist. It is important as it is giving off the image of the CD and a lack of interesting visuals will draw away the audience. We decided to use a digital and electronic look on both our magazine advert and the cover of our cd to reflect the nature of our artist. We included a quote from Marianne Williamson about human inadequacy to give the meaningful vibe in which we wished to put off about the artist, who is named D'Artagnan. The message gives across an inspirational message of staying true to yourself and this will help relate to the targeted audience of the artist.
The front cover is a simplistic black and white image of the artist giving a simplistic but attractive feel to the CD. We felt it was necessary for the front cover to be seem edgy and rebellious in order to reflect the artists nature. Also included on the front cover is a parental advisory sign which gives the cover the rebellious feel we were aiming for, the name D'Artagnan and the title of the song we chose for our video 'We are from Venice'. The back cover is of a shot of headphones lying on DJ decks with a list of the songs. This gives a feel of absence as the DJ is not present of the picture, making the audience feel more engaged in the music rather than the artist. The CD holder is background with a picture of the DJ performing live to an audience cheering. This gives the audience of group expression as when listening to the artist, they will feel at one with the audience.

TASK ONE: In what ways do your media products use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

This is all about how we imitated conventions from existing actual media products and in some cases tried to change them or subvert them. As the film theorist Roland Barthes says, 'A media text needs to give the audience plesier, which is the expected conventions, and juisance, which is the unexpected, the different'.

We studied various pop videos and analysed them using Keith Negus' list of conventions. We used ourselves some of these and subverted some of them too. The Negus conventions are:
• The explicit and unashamed promotion of the artist’s “image” (aesthetic/generic/ideological) as a specific product with a brand identity, ready for mass consumption

• The featuring of the artist (almost without exception)

• A wide and extensive use of shot types, camera angles and movement

• Repetition of reoccuring thematic elements and generically specific iconography (one key element often being dominant and providing the skeletal structure for the promo)

• 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 (lighting, annimation, CGIs, in-camera effects)

• A carefully constructed Mise en Scene appropriate to the content and tone of the track

• High impact instantly


A form and convention of a real media product is a type of conformity found within multiple similar media products, something that is a common occurrence within similar media products. We were encouraged when creating our media products to use, develop and challenge real media forms and conventions. In my media products, my thriller and my pop video we attempted to do as such. We were instructed to watch thrillers and pop videos in order to gain inspiration for our own pieces. We attempted to use, develop and challenge some of the forms and conventions displayed in these real life media products within ours in order to form an easier comparison between our product and real life media products and to help establish where we have used, developed or challenged certain forms and conventions present within these media products.
















Within our thriller, a main media product in which we gained inspiration for forms and conventions was the film 15 Minutes. The film 15 minutes starts with two thuggish looking criminals, suggested to be from Eastern Europe or Russia. We imitated the convention for two thuggish eastern European men as the antagonists within our thriller as well as the fact that the men display little intelligence and brutish behavior. Another thriller convention we imitated was the convention of having an attractive and vulnerable girl as the victim. Specific examples of films where the victim is a vulnerable attractive girl are plentiful. Many modern B list horror films use this convention; a few examples include horror and thriller films A Nightmare on Elm Street, Halloween and Friday the 13th. We subverted the convention of the victim also being the protagonist however in our production and we challenged usual media forms by making it uncertain for the audience which party they were supposed to be siding with. We made the female character face away from the camera while being tortured in order for the audience to not relate to her but instead emphasize with the brutish torturers who displayed emotion in accordance to their actions. One moment in which one of the torturers displays a relatable emotion is when he grimaces at an incident to do with the torture. This challenges normal forms and conventions of the thugs being without emotion and sympathy.
















During our music video again, we attempted to imitate, use, develop challenge and subvert various forms, conventions and stereotypes found in real media products and general common generic conventions found within music videos. A particular example of a real life media product we imitated is the video to Justice’s song ‘Stress’. The video consist of a gang of hooded youths roaming around town causing general disruption. We imitated this in our video, using the characters to cause destruction around a scrap yard. We changed the idea around by adding two gangs in conflict and setting it in a scrap yard. We followed the convention of music videos to have a performer intertwined with narrative within our video. We also followed the convention of music videos to not always have to follow realism. We followed conventions of promoting the artists imagery and brand identity with the shots of the DJ and allowed the form of instant and constant impact so as when people are flicking through the channels they are instantly drawn to the high tempo of the song. We yet again followed the music video convention of displaying similar recurring themes throughout the product in order to establish the mise en scene but while doing that, we challenged the convention of a linear story line as we displayed some shots (a flame on the burning car) close to the beginning of the video. This helped gave the feel of a disorganized and destructive setting. The shots were cut tightly following the beat of the track, another common music video convention to help the flow and rhythm of the song and video run. These all are conventions and forms used in real media products.

TASK 4: A DIRECTOR'S COMMENTARY ON HOW I USED NEW MEDIA TECHNOLOGIES IN THE CONSTRUCTION AND RESEARCH, PLANNING AND EVALUATION STAGES

Digital Technology is new media technology, where the technology is based on digital storage and communication of data, using 0 and 1 code to compress the data into tiny packets, which give greater speed, quality and huge amounts more of storage space for data. This is far better than the analogue system of communication and data storage that proceeded digital. Digital technology underpins computers, mobile phones, modern video and still cameras, editing, the Internet, MP3 and I Phones, modern radios, modern movie projectors and most technological equipment ranging from in hospitals to schools and transport.




Technology is becoming more and more advanced as the years progress and in such a competitive and demanding market, it’s advancement is vital. For our media project we used the reasonably new technology of the internet to a vast extent in helping us organise the video. A problem helped thanks to the internet was the location of our shoot. We wanted to gain access to a place that we could trash and that was preferably abandoned with lots of items in which the actors in our video could vandalise. We found a place not too far away after shortly searching on the internet. It was on a website designed for finding locations with specific needs, such as the one we found. We thought this place was perfect and rang up the website. They didn’t mind letting us use it so we believed we had a deal. Without the internet, we would have had to of got out a phone directory book and search for hours through numbers while ringing them up and asking if they had a suitable place while it took a matter of minutes thanks to the internet. A problem occurred as after we researched further into the location and realised it was falling apart and that it was a general safety hazard working there. We realised that there would be a problem with people turning up wanting to be in our shoot as well. Luke described a problem that occurred with him in a similar situation when people kept on turning up and trying to get in the shots, causing a general inconvenience to the running of the shoot. Using the internet we researched for more places in which we could film our video but came up with nothing nearly as potentially good as our first find. Eventually, Luke suggested we used the back of the boarding house Beatrice Webb to film our video as there was a disused scrap yard there with lots of things that we could destroy. After taking a look at it we decided it was perfect and we settled with using that location.




On the day of the shoot, we came up with the idea that we wanted our gang members to display different gang hand gestures to flash to the camera and help make them look more genuine. We got ideas of gang signs we could via the internet after simply typing into Google, ‘gang hand gesture’. It came up with lots of different suggestions and it was simple of us to collect a few, work out how you do them and fit them into our piece. We even decided to select a more masculine symbol and a more feminine symbol, gender being assigned by how much the symbol looked like either male or female sexual organs. This helped create the divide between the two gangs in the video and helped establish more of a difference between them.
Once we had finished filming, we had to start with the editing. Before certain technologies came about, film had to be edited by a literal exercise of getting the film and cutting it, with scissors and gluing it where you wanted it to be in relation to the other shots. As you could imagine this is a lengthy process and could take days on end to gain the right precision. Nowadays the technology exists so that film can be easily cut and rearranged at will using computer programmes such as Final Cut Pro, the programme we used to cut the video. It was a reasonably simple process thanks to the programme and it was much easier than it would have been before such technology.




In conclusion, technology such as the internet and Final Cut Pro has helped the production of the video vastly and it would have been difficult without. Technology continues to improve and producing a film will become a much more different and easier task. New media technology, based on binary code underpinned all the five stages of the production, including research and development, pre production, the shoot, post production and distribution and made each stage easier, much quicker and gave a much higher quality to the final production than we could of done without.

EDITING

We edited for two afternoons a week over a four week period, taking it in turns with JJ being the director and driving force.
The aim was to sell the DJ as a charismatic character of the street with street cred and a brand that will appeal. The other aim was to bring the gang to life as potentially violent and perhaps dangerous.



Because we had a big ratio of shots filmed to shots needed there was a lot of choice in what we used. We tried to use varied shots, moving from long shot, to mid shot, to close up, to big close up as Negus says in his list of conventions. This meant we kept changing the excitment of the story with shots not lasting much longer than two to three seconds and cutting to the beat.
We colour graded using adobe after effects in order to give the whole piece a seedy and gritty feel. Most of the piece used a mixture of continuity and discontinuity editing on final cut pro. One shot that was especially effective was the close up of a match being lit and a cigarette with burning ash, with the main character of the gang in the background signalling the danger that was to follow. We cut a shot of the main character in close up from side angles before and after the ash shot for greatened effect.



Another shot that was effective was the way we cut to a burning car as the music 'drop' ended and then we began again. This emphasized the drama of the burning car along with the sparks and the flames flickering.