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

 

Through out each stage of our media Music Video we have used a variety of techniques and camera work. We began by using a PC to carry out our pre-production of research on music videos, deciding on the genre of music we would use. We used sites such as http://www.youtube.com. From there we took out a portable camcorder from college, which we used to get any array of different angles and shots to create interesting looks.

We began by deciding on locations we would use for our music video, so took out with us a stills camera and a camcorder to take Location shots, which we then looked back on helped us decide on which location looked best on screen. This helped us in deciding which location looked best which lighting looked good and angles too.

Once we had our footage, we used on the Mac computers Final cut pro 7, where we could log and capture the footage we had, deciding when to cut it. Once on the final cut pro, we could put our footage in order on the timeline, and we added our soundtrack, where we inserted it via an Ipod onto the timeline.

For the C.D cover and poster, we used a DSLR camera, in order of capturing the best image we used the zoom and changed aperture in order for use to see effects we could put on the pictures. The camera gave our images a more professional look than the screen grabs we had done.When we came to uploading the images onto the Apple Macs and used software Photoshop where, we had to crop images and layer them on top of backgrounds, and add texts and download packages from the internet to gain the certain font we wanted.

 

 

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

Many themes and ideas have been carried over from the main product to the supporting magazine poster and CD cover. As the song is about raw challenging issues, we felt having a gritty texture to the music video and ancillary texts were vital in producing a successful piece of work. We used the simple idea of carrying over the characters played in the music video into the magazine poster and CD covers. To make the use of characters strong enough, we decide to use this theme throughout the entirety of the promotional package. To differentiate from the usual music poster, our group decide to design a poster for each character within the music video (the pimp, prostitute and news reporter). As well as designing a poster for each character, after create a number of posters, we asked people within the target audience (15-24) which poster best supported the themes of the music video and how. The research was majorly using in helping us understand what features interest our target audience when producing the poster and CD covers.

Our stylistic aspect of the promotional package was the persona and the outfits and contrast of different characters within the music video. This is evident all aspects of the ancillary texts for example; the pimp wearing a parker, the prostitute in stereotypical clothing and the suit of the news reporter. Another feature to the poster and CD case is how all three characters are framed within their pictures. The prostitute is always framed within one third of the photograph, showing how she is the victim within the video; she also doesn’t look into the camera making her look venerable. Other example for this include how the pimp has placed towering over the camera in his poster, this low –angle shows his power within the main product. This dominance is also evident within the inside cover as staring straight into the camera gives the audience the overwhelming sense he is the dominant character within the video. The strong themes and relations between the ancillary text and main product help advertise the overall feel of the product to the audience.

It seemed that the central theme should run throughout our project and that the main character of the music video (the prostitute) should be presented on the CD case in a similar light to her character in the main product, so the audience can create a link between the two. This would come across to the target audience as a mysterious and unusual artist, especially since the music video matched that of the rest of the promotional package. It was obvious to the group, whilst the song "When the Sun Goes Down – Arctic Monkeys” in the music video is a very meaningful and challenging song, and the fact that the music video focuses on the personalities between characters (which is represented in their appearance), that the same theme on the magazine advertisement would be the most appropriate thing to do when promoting the CD.
Overall we feel the range of techniques used across our poster and CD covers are used cleverly, from the depth of focus used on our back cover to the filters (i.e. diffused glow) used for the front cover and poster to create emotion from the prostitute.

In what ways does your medis product use, develop or challenge forms and coventions of real media products?

Throughout each stage of our music video we have used a variety of techniques and camerawork, we begin by using popular Internet sites such as www.youtube.com, www.wikipedia.org and www.muzu.com. After using these sites for research our group gathered greater knowledge on aspects surrounding the genre of our music video, such as what aspects are used, but more importantly how and why the are used. The research also helped our group understand why particular camera-angles are used and how they create personas within a music video, for example Kasabian’s ‘Processed Beats’ (analysed in an earlier post).

We began planning out music video by researching locations around Manchester; firstly our group visited places that we already knew, (such as near the college grounds). After this we ventured into the city centre as the historical building and dark alleyways would be great for what we had in mind. For this we only used a compact camera as the photo’s we were taking we only for references when planning the shots for the music video. These photos also proved useful for the framing of shots (i.e. low angles, long shots or panning shots) as well as the lighting (for locations such as the canal, etc)

Once filming was complete and we had our footage on the tape, we moved to the editing suite so we could use the Apple Mac’s editing software ‘Final Cut Pro’. This was where we logged and captured the footage we had. Once on ‘Final Cut Pro’, we could put our footage in order on the timeline, and we added our soundtrack, which we captured through a video/audio convert, the acquired the clip on www.youtube.com.

We did a variety of editing techniques; one of the most challenging editing techniques we used was the stop motion that features a number of times in our music video. When we originally did the stop motion on Final Cut Pro the ‘cut-out’ the same length of time between each shot, making the stop-motion looked far to smooth. To correct this we re-editing the stop-motion m this time taking different amounts of time of each cut. This overall made the stop-motion a lot more natural looking and not as forced. We feel this is due to the music, which the stop-motion is being used to, as different notes are being played as well as the timings of the notes being different.

Both the start and the end of the music video involve the news reporter in front of the green screen. Our group feels this was an original idea that other music videos (especially within the same genre) haven’t used before. The idea steamed from the character of the news reporter looking into the story behind the lyrics, having a news reporter introducing a news program, helped the audience understand the narrative as the introduction was used to explain what would be happening within the music video.

For the CD cover and advertisement we used the photography department’s DSLR cameras. Capturing photographs on the full manual setting proved to be more successful are fine-tuning the shutter speed, ISO and exposure levels. The camera gave our photos a more professional look than using screen-grabs from the main product.

When we came to uploading the images onto the Apple Macs we used a software called Photoshop where, we had to crop images and layer them on top of backgrounds, and add texts and download packages from the internet to gain the certain font we wanted.

What have you learn from your audience feedback?

Once we had completed our music video, to the best of what we could do, we ask a group of people our video that had not seen the video for their neutral feedback as to what we could improve in future.

This gave us a new insight into the video and to how our concept would be perceived by other people; also it became difficult for us to spot things about the video that could be improved as we had edited it after spending such along time on it.

The feedback we were given was generally positive, as the audience particularly like the continuity of shots and the stop motion used throughout the video.  Another feature the audience seemed to like was the locations used gave the video an authenticity that suited the genre of the video (British Rock). Many of the sample audience said they could see our video being shown on television music channels such as MTV Rock and NME

From the audience Feedback we believe that we have produced a good video that fulfills the genre and lyrics of the song successfully. However it could have been improved with a larger variety of location shots and maybe a few more actors, as some of the people played more than one roll. Also another element of the video that could have been sharper was the lip-syncing as it is not perfect nearer the end of the song.  These are minor thing that I feel the audience could overlook as they seemed highly impressed with our final video.

Audience Response

To gain feedback on our music video we asked a sample of our target audience to view it and give their frank opinion about it.  They gave us suggestion on how we could have improved it but also elements of the video had they liked. Overall the view thought our video was highly effective and the variety of shot and edits used in post-production were relative of those used in music video you would see on television. The only negative feedback people had, was that in the concluding part of our video our lip-syncing was slightly out for a few seconds.

Our Music Video

Poster Ideas