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Blog Contents

October - November
Music video research & planning

November - December
Print production research & planning

End of December
Last few posts on music video planning
Completed print production

January
Filming begins

February
Finished music video

March
Evaluation

Q4: How Did You Use Media Technologies in the Construction and Research, Planning and Evaluation Stages?

I have used technology religiously throughout my year as an A2 media student. It is the most important part of the coursework, without which I wouldn't have been able to easily research into existing similar products, communicate with my target audience or make the video or print production itself.  

Media 2.0

I have used Youtube a lot through all the stages of my coursework. It has been useful not only because of the ability to research into existing products but also to find tutorials to increase our skills with the editing suites. For example it was key for our narrative that we included a split screen effect, and so we looked up how to create this in Adobe Premiere Pro.

Facebook was my main way of communicating with both my audience and my cast. I used it to send group emails to those taking part in the video to organise times and places as well as using it for audience feedback purposes. However audience feedback grew to be problematic where Facebook was concerned. Many were interested and happy to watch the videos but became reluctant to answer the questions and provide useful comments due to the sheer amount of other media students doing the same thing.

I spent a long time on Myspace in the initial stages of planning to find our artist and song. Once decided upon our artist I used his Myspace to find out key information, such as whether he was signed to a label or not and the artists he claims to be similar to (for inspiration.)

I also used music software Spotify's related artist feature to find artists similar to the one I had chosen and then look up their music videos for inspiration.

I have used Blogger greatly through my A level course. The website has allowed me to present my coursework effectively and interestingly as I am able to embed HTML codes to include videos and powerpoint presentations from other websites such as Youtube and Slideshare.

My mobile phone became key to the organisation of my music video cast, meetings and focus groups. Initially I would create an even on Facebook informing them all of the filming times and locations however it was through my phone that I was able to remind them to make sure they turned up.

Production

My Nikon D40 was very important where my print production was concerned as it enabled me to take high mega pixel shots which made the editing process in Photoshop easier. With it's range of features such as the auto focus and ISO levels I was able to take successful shots.

Jess and I were very lucky to have access to a Panasonic HDV camera to use throughout our music video production. Having previously used a DV camera whereby it is recorded on a tape and each clip has to be 'captured', I found the HDV camera a lot easier to use because of it's SD card. When teamed with a tripod we were also able to create pan shots like that in proffesional music videos.

Editing

I chose to use Adobe Photoshop CS5  when editing my print production work as it was easy to manipulate images. I used the RGB curves filters and the effects, particularly vignette, a great deal when trying to replicate a vintage image. The colour dropper tool enabled me to make sure the colours were the same where appropriate to make it coherent.

For our music video task the only software we used was Adobe Premiere Pro. This allowed us to easily import and organise (through the use of folders) our video clips and arrange them. We used the razor tool to  discard any unwanted bits of film  and to create effective cuts. We also used this tool to precisely cut our clips to ensure the lip sync was spot on. However I do think we were limited in our choice of video effects. Initially we had wanted to include a film grain however the only option available didn't show up very well so we had to discard it. That meant we had to rely on the filters to make certain sections of our video look vintage. This technological determinism shows how technology has had a power over my work.

Q3: What Have You Learned From Your Audience Feedback?

Throughout the process of creating all three products I have frequently asked my target audience for feedback to ensure I was appealing to them. I used a variety of platforms to discuss my products with my audience such as Facebook, class comments and face to face. My final audience feedback upon completing my music video was to see if what I had created was successful.

I gathered three people I believed to be in my target audience. These people are:

• Hedonists
• Students
• C1- B demographic
• 16-21

The video's narrative was a key feature due to it's entropic and ambiguous style. We deliberatley made it so the video could be interpreted in different ways. However from their answers it is  clear that the narrative has not been completely understood. There ideas on the narrative varied from "suicide" to "travelling" showing a negotiated reading of the text. My focus group may not have had the right cultural capital (perhaps they are not regular music video watchers) to understand or perhaps this shows that the narrative was too entropic for even our target audience to comprehend or interpret. Based on comments such as "Why were there girls in a car?" and "Why was he hung?" it is obvious to me that I need to make my narrative clearer. 

I also presented my video to my media class who have a range of interests and demographics but being media students can comment on the video more technically. The consensus was that our video fitted the indie/folk genre due to the use of filters to give the vintage look. It was also said that our 'locations suited the song' and our 'setting suited the genre' showing that generally they gave a preffered reading.

Q2: How Effective Is The Combination Of Your Main Product And Ancillary Texts?

Q2: How Effective Is The Combination Of Your Main Product and Ancillary Texts?

View more presentations from bethmoney.

Aspects I would change:

• My music video itself is purposefully incoherant to distinguish the different narratives, but the sections are mostly coherant. The only incoherency is between the wooded shots with the protagonist and where the extras come in. This is because the latter was shot on a different day when it was significantly sunnier. If I was to reshoot my video I would make sure each section was shot on the same day to increase coherency.
• I would make the colours between the advert and the digipak the same or more similar so they can be more easily recognised as part of a marketing package.

To conclude, the house style for my productions is one which contains vintage filters with nostalgic themes and outdoor locations. Although there is a difference in colour and character I think the audience was still able to recognise the artist through the house style created.

Evaluation Q1: In What Ways Does Your Media Product Use, Develop, or Challenge Forms and Conventions of Real Media Products?

Music Video Evaluation:

Print Production Evaluation: 

For my print production I took a lot of inspiration from the indie genre whereby I used filters and effects to connote nostalgia and vintage. This does not challenge the conventions of similar media products as it is typical for folk artists to incorporate the indie genre in both their music and products and often call themselves 'indie/folk artists.' My print production, along with existing products, try to give an image relevant to the auteur theory (whereby they are not influenced my 'mainstream hype' and have individual ideas determined by their creativity alone.) However this once niche genre is becoming more and more mainstream making it cohere to Adorno's theory of popular media and music products being characterised by standardisation.

This image is quite redundant because folk artists tend to use either an image containing an illustration or a scenic shot, I had also previously found that artists of the genre don't tend to use an image of themselves, which is something else I've conformed to. 

Final Music Video: David Gibb - This Young Boy

Music Video Work In Progress

Research and Planning: Cast Organisation

After contacting him and making sure he's available, Jess and I have assigned the role of the protagonist in our music video to Alex Rainsford.

Alex on Facebook

Although he doesn't attend the same college as Jess and I, Alex assures us he'll be available for the times we need to film. He already has a folky look about him and being a singer himself will feel comfortable performing and lip syncing.

We discussed who should play the role of the main hanged person, which  is an important role as the character will get a lot of camera time in the first section of the video, and decided Emma Harrison would be perfect for it. She is outgoing enough to feel confident in the role but also does media as well so will understand the seriousness of the video and what we need to achieve.

Emma on Facebook

Jess and I have also created a Facebook event for the main cast as well as the extras we'll need for the last scene in the video. We've made it an open event, meaning anyone can invite others to join which will hopefully end up with us having a crowd of people required for the end of the video when the main character is surrounded by the dead people he has saved.