Commentary

We have also had to make a directors cut over our pop video. Below is a few initial ideas that should help stimulate a conversation for out directors cut.

• Background - key aspect of whole video, helps to reninforce a creative, organic feel.
• Autumnal feel troughout video.
• The background was a textile piece that Jess created - Photoshoped it in, then Chromokeyed it in AfterEffects.
• Bike scenes - blue screen and used stop motion to make it seem as if they are cycling.
• Problems with the bluescreen, e.g. Fuzzyness because it was a course fibre material.
• The Pull Focus - worked well but the background gives it a sligthly distorted effect.
• Callums lip sync - problem as he did not know the lyrics that well
• High key lighting - positive mode of address
• Boat scene - how we made it. More theatrical effect as didn't use special effects. But was very hard to organize
• Montage of images at the end.

Below is the directors cut, me and one other group member made:

Visual Stimuli

Creativity, according to a Department for Education and Enterprise report on skills in the film industry called “A Brighter Future” is made up of four elements: imagination, purpose, originality and value. Imagination is when you think of something inventive, purpose is that your thought fits the purpose, the situation you are facing and looking to meet. Value is that your idea meets the need and is not just an idea that is not relevant. While originality means that it is very different and something that has not been seen or heard of before by you.

We were shown a couple of videos to watch in order to help us with additional research and key evaluative points.
The first video was 'The Machine is Changing Us' on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=09gR6VPVrpw

Following on from watching this, there were a number of important points that were worth considering in terms of evalutive points, such as:

• There are 20% of people on the web - what about the other 80%?
• 2 billion people online
• The web holds the next revolution - anyone can upload and use the web globally at any one time.
• 18 million people read blogs
• The web is 'The great leveller' - everyone has equal access, equal voice and equal potential.
• Wikipedia has become the most important information source in the world, more than 62 million people use it around the world, anyone can edit the information - people power.
• The web was and still is a challenge to authority.
• The web is used to express, to comment, to discuss and to receive ideas.
• The internet is the infrastructure whereas the web are the links.
• 6th August 1991 - the first website went online
• The web opened up information to anyone who had access to a computer.
• One view is that the internet is for sharing and collaboration, where it is promoting creative freedom. Whereas, another view is how do we pay the mortgage - is it just profit driven?
• 90% of downloads on the web are not paid for.
• YouTube is viewed more than a billion times a day.
  

Web 2.0 Key Terms

• NETOCRACY: the idea that the web is controlled by no-one
• ARCHITECTURE OF PARTICIPATION: the idea that web-pages are built to encourage the audience to get involved in creating their own 'spaces'.
• USER GENERATED CONTENT: the idea that the audience controls the content and how it is displayed e.g. Wikipedia
• INFORMATION RICH: the idea that pages and sites are all full of images, sounds, connections and uses. For example, quality is not as good as established institutional material, YouTube has low production values, poor pixilation and poor sound quality. Whereas Flickr has high quality photographic images.
• INFORMATION CLOUD: this is a criticism of Web 2.0, it ts the idea that no one is controlling or filtering information, so the user becomes lost or confused or misinformed.
• MASH-UP: the idea that the audience can personalise it or be creative, e.g. CassetteBoy vs. Alan Sugar
• FOLKSONOMY: Web 2.0 is based around useable, searchable and navigatable windows or 'tags'.

Assessment of Key Criteria:

• There is an increased PROLIFERATION of user generated content - there is a constant expansion
• There is a degeneration in the production QUALITY of content.
• There is a massive emphasis on audience INTERACTIVITY.
• CONVERGENCE technology is taken for granted and is multiple.
• INSTITUTIONAL CONVERGENCE is threatened.
• A new NETOCRACY is provided to audiences.

AS/A2 Comparison Sheet

I decided to create a comparison sheet in terms of the different digital technology I used across the two years and seeing how my knowledge and understanding has approved with it.


AS Foundation Production

Research and Planning:
• Internet: used this to research initial ideas, in terms of costume, props, hair and make-up.
• YouTube: looked up and researched other opening sequences of thriller films to help give inspiration in terms of the colour palette, the score and the style.
• Blog: this was used to try and get us to store all our research materials and order them in an orderly fashion, so everything flows in a chronological order.
• Digital Camera: I initially used the camera to take pictures of possible locations in order to help find the perfect setting for our opening sequence.
• Photoshop: when we were starting up we used Photoshop to help create a logo and a letterhead, this was to help us feel as if we were creating this real business.

A2 Advanced Production
Research and Planning:
• Internet: used the internet to again research initial ideas in terms of costumer etc. but also to research star image, we did more independent research to find out the star image we wished to create.
• YouTube: this again was used to research multiple pop videos, ones that were similar and contrasting in order to help us get a real understanding of what we wanted ours to look like. Also, once more set on the track choice – we were able to look at already ‘home-made’ videos to the same track.
• Blog: used to upload our initial research material in order for it to be continually logged, also this year we have made a lot more use of the blogs – we frequently are adding and altering posts, giving it a slightly more relaxed approach so it is a continual log of our progress.
• Digital Camera: when looking for potential performers, we went round and took pictures of people we thought would suit the role so we had a back log when it came to making a final decision.


AS Foundation Production
Construction:
• Digital Camera: used to take pictures continually on the shoot day in order to help us with our evaluation.
• Sony 170 Camera: we used this camera to film the opening sequence of our thriller.
• Final Cut Pro: this was the software we used to cut and edit our opening sequence together, once it was cut on the timeline we used to create credits along with a score. For our thriller, we didn’t use any after effects as it was not needed for the effect we were looking to create.

A2 Advanced Production
Construction:
• Digital Camera: again we used a camera to take photos of our shoot day to help with our evaluation. But also, we used it to take promotional pictures from our shoot day, such as for our poster as well as our CD cover.
• Sony 170: we used this camera to film our storyboards in order for us to make a rough cut of them together – as we knew that this camera was not as high quality as the cameras that were available for us to shoot our pop promos with.
• JVC Camera: we used this to film our pop promo, this camera is a lot more technically advanced than the one we used in AS, it creates a much better depth of field along with a much strong quality, making the pop promo look more authentic.
• Final Cut Pro: again this is the program we used to edit. Initially, we begun using this software to do a rough cut of our storyboard, this was to make it easier for when it came to cutting together the actual footage from the shoot day, as we would be wary of where we wanted each shot to be placed etc. Then eventually, we used this software to cut and edit together the footage to create our pop video.
• AfterEffects: we used this for the editing of the blue screen along with the moving backgrounds; this program is defiantly more advanced than Final Cut Pro and defiantly challenged us.
• Photoshop: we used this to design and create the front and back of our CD cover along with the bands promotional poster.

AS Foundation Production
Evaluation:
• YouTube: once the opening sequence was created, we uploaded it onto YouTube and then we were able to gather audience feedback – we are able to view comments, audience views and where the video was being most played in the world etc. This enabled us to make comparisons and help to evaluate our work.
• Blog: throughout we used this to upload our progress, therefore, we were able to look back on our experience that had been uploaded onto our blog, which helped us to answer the 7 evaluative questions we were asked.

A2 Advanced Production
Evaluation:
• YouTube: again we have used to view audience feedback etc, however, we have not used this as well as last year because we didn’t push for audience feedback that much on YouTube, therefore there has not been too much to help us with.
• Blog: as we used our blog so much more this year, and had a much more relaxed approach – seeing it as more of a diary, it enabled us to look back on our work over both this year and last year and see what we have improved on along with what we could have done differently.
• Internet: we used the internet and found a website called surveymonkey. This was brilliant as it was an easy way of creating questionnaires online and has made it easier to identify and collect the responses. Also, it has allowed us to send via email etc, generating more people to give us audience feedback.

Audience Feedback

What have you learned from you audience feedback?

Collect a variety of feedback for your product from members of your target audience and from other audience deomgraphics on your blog, via YouTube or other sources.
Discuss how this feedback relates to your own view of the strengths and weaknesses of your product and use it to demonstrate Hall's concepts of preferred, negotiated and oppositional meanings.

For this part of our evaluative tasks, we created a survey online in order to gain audience feedback, this was so we could find out information more in depth in different parts of our pop video, for example, ‘What kind of mood do you think the video had?’ We asked a range of people between the ages of 12-47, however, due to our circumstances, being at a boarding school, the majority of our sample was between the ages of 16-18. Moreover, this is the target audience we were trying to aim for. So this was beneficial as we could find out more in depth information about how the audience were receiving our pop video. Here are some of the results we collected and how we interpreted them:

• 40% of people we asked thought the style of song ‘Bruises’ was a pop style – this is pretty much what we hoped, it is not a big pop act but it defiantly had some pop aspects to it.

• 15% of the people thought it was under the category of ‘Other’ – stating that it has a Folk and Country feel.

• The remaining 25% thought it was in the ‘Alternative’ category. To be honest I think the song has quite a unique feel – so it is understandable people believed it would fit into this category.

• 87% of the people we surveyed told us that our pop video was entertaining. From these 87% - it was noted that 70% of these believed the ‘boat scene’ was the most entertaining, with the performance section in the woods falling after that. (Katz and Blumner)

• 67% thought that the ‘bike scene’ was the aspect that people most disliked – to be honest I am quite surprised about this as we think that this element was quite ‘fun and quirky’, I believed it was a definite aspect that the audience would like as it fitted with their star image, e.g. the whole idea of autumnal, rustic feel. (Katz and Blumner)

• 100% of the people asked said that the video had a very happy and upbeat mood. As, most people gave a reason for this answer – and the general trend was because of the lead singers smile and her upbeat dance moves. This is a clear example of Audience Identification; this is the way in which audiences feel themselves connected to a particular media text, in that they feel it directly expresses their attitude or lifestyle. The lead singer, is continually smiling and looking directly into the camera, therefore, making the audience feel connected to the band, allowing them to empathise and may even feel it directly expressed their demographics. (Katz and Blumner)

• 84% of the audience said they would watch the video again after seeing it. Therefore, it is clearly a preferred reading in the eyes of Stuart Hall – they are then responding in the way that we wanted to when we created it.

• 41% of the people we asked said they would not go out and buy the CD after watching the video – a common reason for this was ‘I don’t actually like nor listen to this style of music’. Stuart Hall - Oppositional Reading

• 48% said they would not want to see the band live, again many people stated that the reason for this was the same as above. Also, another common comment was that they did not feel the band would be that great in concert. Personally I am not sure how to quite take these comments, as this is the bands image and style – but I guess this is open to interpretation. This is an example of audience foreknowledge, this is the definite information (rather than the vague expectations) which an audience brings to a media product, therefore this is the feeling they personally got from the video – how do they really know they will not enjoy the concert?

• After looking at our poster, 55% of the people asked said they would watch the concert based just on the poster alone. A few people commented saying ‘It is easy to identify the type of music from the poster’. This is very beneficial as it means that our poster has very much clearly representing the band and their star image. This is a clear example of audience engagement, as some people seem to be instantly attracted to the band without even knowing who are what they are, but it meets their expectations, therefore, they are immediately engaged to the product and would go and see the concert without even seeing or knowing the band. Although, this was probably due to the bright fonts and texts we used in a way of grabbing attention and making the audience engage with the product. Preferred Reading - Stuart Hall

• Of the 48% of the people who said they would see the band live, about 64% said they would buy the bands merchandise if available – with the majority of these being either a hoodies or posters.

• 72% of the people agreed with the bands star image that we had tried to create, saying that terms like youthfulness, originality and creativity are terms they would use to describe the bands star image. However, 8% of the people asked believed that the band had an anti-authoritarian attitude, something that we very much had no intentions in creating, but everybody is entitled to their own opinion. This again is a type of foreknowledge that the sample population have brought to the media product, it’s quite interesting that this kind of star image would be associated with our band; however, I can understand where they are coming from, as it would be expected of the norm of a young band. Preferred/Negotiated Reading - Stuart Hall

Audience Feedback

Part 1

Click here to take survey

Part 2

Click here to take survey

Audience Research and Target Audiences Powerpoint

Powerpoint to help task 3

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

With reference to Richard Dyer's theory of star image, demonstrate how elememts of the star image are sold through your creative choices in the video, digipak cover and poster. In particular, you should look to show how the three products work together to sell the artist and/or where there may be some contradictions in the images created. Make sure that you illustrate with images from your work and, where helpful, from existing products.

O:\Task 2

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In what ways do your media products use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products.

Throughout our media product we tried to use, develop or challenge conventions from real media products. In particular, we looked at six main areas:

• Direct address
• Lighting
• Use of performance clips
• Use of concept clips
• Mode of address
• Use of special effects

Direct Address

One convention which is pretty much always used in pop promos is the use of ‘Direct Address’, this ensures that the performer performs directly to the audience, it gives them a sense of involvement – the use of this convention is to build a relationship between the audience and the performer. The direct address is used to give the audience an emotional connection to the band, the video presents itself based more on the style of the band image rather than the connotation of the lyrics, which contain a serious underlying meaning. Therefore maintaining direct address is an inevitable part of the music video, especially ours as the audience has to feel a connection with the duo in order to build up this fan based relationship which should follow. Above is an example, of a commercial artist, Lady Gaga – she is looking evidently straight towards the camera this entices the audience in to build up a relationship with them. Below, is a clip from our pop video where our lead singer gives the audience direct address to create this relationship. Also, we have decided to film at eye level as this gives a feeling of comradeship between both the performer and the target audience as the mode of address is on same level as audiences. When she looks away – it teases the audiences as it draws them in wanting more, as the star image is something they cannot have, they are then excluded if the star looks away making the audience hungry for more, it encourages repeated consumption. Even videos which are from Electronic Shamen use this convention, for example, ‘The Prodigy’ with ‘Warriors Dance’ and ‘The Chemical Brothers’ with ‘The Salmon Dance’, even though they do not have an actual person in their video it is still important for a connection to be made between the audience and the song itself, so therefore the performer, in this case the ‘salmon’ looks and sings straight towards the camera, therefore giving direct address, which supports this relationship.

Lighting

Lighting is a key aspect of all music videos, often depending on the light used depends on the way in which the band and the song is portrayed to the audience. In our video we used high key lighting to connote a happy, peaceful environment.
We decided to use high key lighting as it juxtaposes the bitter sweet lyrics and the upbeat sound of the music, as this helps to portray more of the stars image rather than the song itself. By using this type of lighting on both our male and female stars, it promotes a positive image to our audience, which is what they are primarily based upon. In contrast, The Ting Tings are a two person band, with their song ‘We walk’ the video is very darkly lit using low key lighting. This may be because they are trying to portray a darker underlying tone and meaning to either their video or themselves as a TV Bard band.

Use of Performance Clips

Throughout our pop video, a key aspect of our promo is the performance clips – like most music videos this is an inevitable aspect. The performance part of our video was a main element, although we wanted it to fit with the genre and style of the band, therefore, the performance shots were set up in this naturalistic environment. They are playing their instruments in the setting in which they feel most comfortable and which best suits their individual style. As Keith Negus categorized bands and artists, our duo come across as a more organic act, thus, these performance clips meet the needs of the band and their target audience.We decided Melena would not only sing but also play the keyboard. This was quite a key part which was ongoing throughout the video as we mixed both wide shots and close ups of her playing her instrument. Whereas, our male singer, William, played the base guitar – the colours of his guitar are quite rustic which are again to emphasize their organic, natural image. Also, we purposely chose to keep the amplifier in the shot, as it again connoted this rural feel and again highlighted this naturalistic environment and their normality as a band.

Not only did the performance aspect make an ongoing appearance in the pop promo, but we extended the use of performance into the CD cover. The back of our CD cover also used the image of the amplifier – we decided to use this as it clearly highlights who they are as a band and that they are primarily interested in their music rather than being just a commercialized group. Again, the colours used also draw attention to their organic style.

The performance aspect is a vital part in all pop videos, below is an image taken from one of ‘The Ting Tings’ music videos. As a group they are quite similar in terms of they are also made up of a male and female artist, however, they have very much been commercialized rather than being a TV Bard band which Faulkes are. Although, they too use this key aspect of performance clips, the image below is just of the female singer with her microphone but also throughout the video many clips are used of the drums and also the base guitar to try and reinforce this performance aspect. But for Faulkes, it is very vital to have performance as one of the main features as this is their style and this is what their target audience desires from them.

Use of Concept Clips

Our pop video consisted of two different concept aspects, one being the band riding on bicycles and the other being them out in a rowing boat. Both these features give a sense of getting and being set free – being a TV Bard band aimed at a more teenage, young adult audience the idea of freedom is inevitable and therefore, this clearly meets their audiences needs and makes them feel connected with the band as they seem to be like-minded.

Both these concept sections do not primarily fit with the lyrics, but again we made a conscious decision to make the pop video primarily based around their style and star image rather than the connotations of the lyrics. Also, both the above shots of the duo cycling and the below shot of them rowing demonstrates this sense of naturalist, rustic image that they wish to portray to their audience, which highlights their art school background. Due to them having this creative background these concept clips perfectly fit with their style and image, even though it does not connote the lyrics, it still works effectively.

Although, most pop videos have a balance of both performance and concept clips – the concepts are often very contrasting. For example, looking at Lady Gaga’s video of ‘Bad Romance’, it is extremely abstract and creative. Everything she does is very peculiar, for example, one of the concept parts was all these ‘alien creatures’ coming out of white body boxes, this just proves her wacky style. Although this is so contrasting to our bands video, it is likely that they may somewhat appeal to a similar audience, as they are both artistically creative and abstract – this could be what our target audience may like. However, our video has a more natural approach to creativeness in both the concept aspects of the video.

Mode of Address

Clearly, the mode of address is a very key element of most music videos. Our video portrays a clear, happy, upbeat style and mode of address. Although, this does not necessarily connote the lyrics of this particular song, as a band – they have this happy persona.

Throughout the piece, we have used autumnal rich colours which give the music video a soft, organic feel. There is a wind of change in public consciousness leaning towards a distrust of the synthetic nature of commodities, for example becoming and being more environmentally friendly – now even food companies are advertising more economic ways of packaging. Therefore, at present, this type of organic and natural environment is likely to appeal greatly to a wider audience as it is likely to fit these organic needs of the audience. The mode of address in our video shows an organic integrity that mirrors this public attitude, so appealing more to ‘trendies’. We have this alternative approach from the mass culture commercialized acts, and therefore, targeting and appealing to our specific target audience as it reflects their mind-set.
However, our video does also challenge some aspect of this convention. A common mode of address would be to have to female lead singer to be in the middle of the frame, if using the rule of thirds, as this is purposely design for the male gaze. Even, if the band is only a duo made of just a male and female then this convention is still used, for example, in the above still shot from one of ‘The Ting Tings’ pop videos – the male is not even in this shot, reinforcing this element of trying to appeal to the male gaze. By challenging this feature it reinforces this creative, artistic approach we have tried to create. Below is a still from our video, both singers are in the frame but Melena is to the right of the shot and in front of William, even though this challenges this convention, the shot still appeals to the male gaze as she is the one pulling in the focus even though she is not in the centre.

Moreover, the finalized product clearly demonstrates this organic image and style Faulkes are trying to create. Their positive and upbeat attitudes are evident throughout the piece which reinforces their band image.

Use of Special Effects

Special effects are a key feature that we have continually used throughout our video. For two out of the three different sections we used a blue screen, for the performance clips we had this artistic, textile piece in which one of our members of our group created which we used after affects to project it in the background. This created this natural, organic, arty environment we wished to create; it is a perfect mix with the autumn leaves covering the studio floor.
Whereas, the second use of blue screen was to create this sense of cycling, we shot them on bikes which were on frames so they were still, and used to blue screen and had a combination of pictures from a country lane to show them moving and cycling. It is quite clear that it is a fake scenario – but that was the idea. Also, by using a setting of the countryside again reinforces this organic, natural environment.

However, we did have some problems when it came to editing with the blue screen, as at times the image was slightly fuzzy due to the quality of the screen. But overall, it defiantly created the effect we wanted to.

Moreover, we also tried to challenge this stereotypical convention; we tried to create our own special effects, with our third concept section we wanted to create this scene where they were out rowing. Although, we could have used the blue screen again to create this, we decided to make these ourselves, again emphasizing this artistic environment, in which the target audience would greatly like. The whole approach to our special effects had this organic, natural setting – we wished to create this arty environment and it was defiantly highlighted throughout our pop video.

CD Cover

Our CD cover, clearly demonstrates the bands star image, as we feel it very much fits with their style. Again, we either used or challenged forms of conventions or real media products. Take direct address to begin with, originally we thought it was vital that our band had a really strong image on the CD cover, but we began to realise that this was not the right look for the band. Their approach was much more rustic and natural; therefore we decided to create something based more on their talents and their creative flare, choosing to not have them as the main focus on the cover. Although, they are looking towards the camera because it blends in with the cover as a whole it fits more with their organic star image. Also, the colours we have chosen to use are there to highlight the bands image, reinforcing this artistic, naturalistic, organic style. This would also appeal to their target audience as they are likely to be eco-friendly, artistic and creative people and this cover would defiantly appeal to them. Another convention we have incorporated is the use of symbolic material, the leaves are a very clear piece of imagery for the band, we have used them in our main product as well as both the ancillary texts, the leaves are there to continually reinforce their organic, natural image. Lastly, the lighting used is very dark, we wanted to give this image a real sense of naturalism, and keeping it dim and all blurring into one image enhances this.

Above is the back cover of our CD, again we are clearly illustrating this sense organic environment using autumnal colours throughout. However, by combining both the natural setting with the amp from the pop promo helps to clearly identify the bands image and their love for music. Using Keith Negus’s term, Faulkes would be seen as an organic act and therefore, this whole image and the combination of performance and concept work really well together – it very simply yet clearly conveys the band as they wish, truly showing their rustic, natural sense of originality and creativity.