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

Final Album Cover

For our cover we firstly went out with a few locations in mind along the canal as at dark settings at night would suit the genre, we decided using the flash on the DSLR would have stifled the locations gloomy setting. To compensate this we used the streetlights to light Nicole, we feel this was a major success as the street lighting helps give Nicole’s character a sense of being alone. To make the most of the gloomy setting, we captured images of her at different angles, in different poses but in a similar outfit to show our videos idea.

After we acquired our shots we uploaded them onto the computer and started editing them with Photoshop. We chose our final image due to how it well suited to the genre and styling of our main product it is. We then used simple Photoshop tools to alter the contrast and tone while also applying a light filter to help the CD cover keep its simplicity.As the CD covers are for an album, for the back cover we use the popular site Wikipedia.org to retrieve the track list and use on for our cover to make our covers more realistic.

Album Cover Ideas

Album Cover Inspiration

For our cover we decided it should follow the gritty theme’s of the main product, so firstly we decided to have it influenced by album covers of a similar genre (British rock).  We looked at CD covers such as The Enemy album ' Had Enough' and the Oasis’ 'Hindu Times'. 

Along with the other researched album covers,we picked features from each which would help match the persona Nicole plays in our video. The album cover for '(What’s the Story) Morning Glory?' played an interesting part in the development in the design of our front cover. We felt the mise-en-scene of the image was similar to the style we wanted for our case design, as the characters in the image are dominated by their surroundings we thought this should be a main aspect of our cover.

Using '(What’s the Story) Morning Glory?' along with The Fray’s self-titled album will be our main inspiration for the album cover. The lighting within The Fray’s album cover along with the blur helps create a sense of being alone. Along with other features from the album covers above, we feel the CD front cover will be simplistic, effective and similar to album covers of the similar genre.

Filming

For filming we arrived on the various sets with a camera, tripod and suitable clothes that we felt improved the mise-en-scene as they made the story more realistic. Another feature of filming we had to consider was the camera’s poor intake of light, due to this we decided to film in the day, as filming at night would have made the shots grainy.

Our Storyline

As we decided we our video would have a slight narrative, it would also be dysjunctia to the overall video. As we had a clear idea that we wanted to use the idea of a narrator telling the story of a prostitutes’ life, we used a news reporter as our narrator. As are new reporter supposed to be unbiased to the issues they are discussing we wanted to show the view a clear contrast between him, the prostitute and her pimp. In order to do this we decided the mise-en-scene should be in “scummy” places such as alleyways and under the canal. This paralleled with what the lyrics of the song were about.

Inital Shotlist

Shot 1- Begins with a close up of the news reporter with a background of Manchester city centre

Shot 2- Camera will cut to the mid shot of the pimp

Shot 3- Establishing shot of the canal and surrounding area

Shot 4- Pan up prostitutes body

Shot 5- Extreme close up of prostitutes face focusing on her eyes

Shot 6- Cut to a long shot of the news reporter in an alley with the prostitute in the background (rule of thirds)

Shot 7- Over the shoulder shot of the pimp collecting money of the prostitute

Shot 8- Cut to an extreme close up of money being exchanged and counted

Shot 9- Close up of the pimp face           

Shot 10- Long shot as the pimp walks away from the prostitute

Shot 11- Cut back to the news repoter in another location as he fixes his clothes

Shot 12- quick cut to the mid shot of the prostitute stood on a street corner with people walking past her.

Shot 13- Establishing shot of sunset 

These are just a couple of our intial ideas we had for the opening of our music video, the shot and ideas may change throughout the course as we have not tried them out yet to see how effective they will look and some of the shot maybe difficult to shot . For example, the establishing shot of the sunset will be time-consuming as we will have to ensure we film it in one continuous shot. 

Costumes and Props

For our video we had the idea of a news reporter narrating on the life of a prostitute this therefore meant their costumes had to similar to what viewer would associate with the character, however with the prostitute clothes we toned it down in order to get the largest viewing audience possible. We decided to make the pimp look slightly ‘scummy’ as it links with the lyrics of the song, we decided think about the costumes, and how they would contrast, which would fit in with the mise-en-scene of the video.

Initial Ideas and Storyboard

Firstly we wrote our instant ideas that we thought were relevant to the lyrics of the song. By doing this, it gave us a springboard for what to include in our shot list and when filming the video. We included some locations that we felt would be fitting for the mise-en-scene as looked dirty and fitted our vision for the video.  In order to work out how long the footage for each verse would have to be we wrote do the times for them, which gave us a visual of roughly how many shot we would need.

We then decided to make an animatic Storyboard in order to visual see how our music video would finally look. In order for us visualise our final video we drew characters in the settings we wanted to film in as it gave true representation of what our overall video would look like.

Location Shots

We chose to film part of our music video on a secluded backstreet and use this location for a few shots as the setting fitted the piece and worked with the idea we had for part of our video. The lighting in the location did not worked particularly well as we filmed in 
the afternoon, this meant the shots were too bright but we felt if we had filmed later in the day the cameras would not have picked up all the facial expression on our characters. The shots we decided to film in this location were used as part of the performance element but also for the narrative.

As we felt that using a sunset in our video would be fitting as both an establishing shot but also as a literal image since the song is called “When the Sun Goes Down.” As we were on top of a car park we had the best chance of filming the sunset in one continuous shot as there were few cars or pedestrians walking through the shot. 

When we came up with concept for the music video, the main themes appeared to be the news reporter would commentate through the lyrics about Roxanne’s life leading us to film in places, which had a grubby environment. We came across these locations in and around Manchester City Centre that were used for both the performance and narrative of our video.

Arctic Monkeys

Arctic Monkeys are an English rock band which were formed in 2002 in a suburb of Sheffield. The band currently consists of Alex Turner (lead vocals, rhythm guitar), Jamie Cook (lead guitar), Nick O'Malley (bass guitar), Matt Helders (drums) and John Ashton as a touring member (keyboard, guitar, backing vocals). Their debut album "Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not", released in early 2006, became the fastest-selling debut album in British music history, surpassing Elastica's Elastica and remains the fastest-selling debut album for a band in the UK.

"When the Sun Goes Down" is the second album be released by the band on 16 November 2005. The song is about a prostitution in the Neepsend district of Sheffield, was originally known as "Scummy" following their debut single "I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor" to a UK Number One. The track is featured on the band's debut album, "Whatever People Say I Am ,That's What I'm Not", which was released soon after.



Music Video Analysis - The Enemy

As this song is a similar genre to Kasabian’s ‘Processed Beats’ (Brit Rock) we found the video to be similar in the aspect of both music videos being mainly performance based. What separates the two videos is how ‘Had Enough’ has a much stronger narrative with Main characters played out by more than just Band Members like in ‘Processed Beats’.

Although ‘Had Enough’ has minimal post production editing effects we found the camera techniques rather advanced with a arrange of shots from simple close-ups of band members to more technical long ranged tracking shots which would have most likely been shot using a crane.These shots continue throughout the music video with simple close-ups and extreme close-up’s of band Members and their key props such as Liam Watts (Drummer) used his drumstick, Andy Hopkins (Bass) strummed and Tom Clarke (Guitar, Vocals) sang. Shots included the actors also had close-ups and extreme close-ups to help show the emotion the characters were feeling, these shots also helped give the narrative depth as they engaged the audience to what would otherwise be a shallow and tedious plot.

What we found different between this music video and Kasabian’s ‘Processed Beats’ was the use of camera angles, within this video we found that a token of low angled shots were used throughout the video in comparison. We felt this could be due to the locations used as they are all based on a working class estate.These vast amount of high camera angles were only used for the characters help increase the depth to the narrative as low angled shots give the audience the sense that the characters are inferior, this worked well with the plot of the video as main characters were made to look small. The editing was rather interesting within this music video as when being compared to ‘Processed Beats’ we found the editing to be at a basic standard. With simple cuts and little post production effects, the most advanced parts of editing involves getting the lip syncing correct as well as changing the rate of cuts (much faster rate of cuts when band members are performing when compared to narratives slow rate of cuts). We also felt the Mise-en-scene was very interesting as costume and location match the narrative exceedingly precisely as baseball caps, tracksuit bottoms and other similar clothing mixed with the locations of council estates really did help give the music video a deep sense of a working-class plot. This was also helped by the strong performances acted out within the narrative as well as the basic lighting of sunlight giving the music video an intense gritty feeling. This therefore is a music video which combines both narrative and performance. (location are similar for both narrative and performance)

The typical genre of this type of song (Brit Rock) is normally downbeat and based on social realism(definition) . ‘Had Enough’ follows suit in this case as both the performance and the narrative parts are based on working-class council estates. The narrative of the story is mainly based around a male aged around 17-25 as the video follows him around a day in his life involving his friends and generally things the protagonist would pursue throughout the day. Constant inter-cutting of the band performing and narrative was a common factor within ‘Had Enough’, the performance part takes place in similar surroundings to the narrative to show the bands relevance to the meaning of the song. 


Although performance is used regularly within the music video we found the narrative to be the main emphasis. Due to this we thought there was a strong narrative  when compared to Kasabian’s ‘Processed Beats’. It is for this reason that we found The Enemy’s ‘Had Enough’ an effective video with aspects of performance to support the strong narrative.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iPTBu9hD57U&ob=av2n

Music Video Analysis - Kasabian

As the music video our group are looking at is ‘When The Sun Goes Down’ by Arctic Monkeys we thought it would be useful to look at other artist who have released music videos with the similar gritty feeling which ‘When The Sun Goes Down’ possesses. As the song represents strong social realism within British culture we thought it would be better if we analysed music videos which come from a working class British background, for this we have chosen Kasabian – Processed Beats, The Enemy – Had Enough and Arctic Monkeys – Leave Before The Lights Came On.

Kasabian - Processed Beats

We found this music video was heavily performance based with little narrative. The majority of the video is taken up by performances from band members, this is matched by a lot of low angled camera angles to give the band a sense of power within the video but only when singing. Another similar camera technique was the hand held pan which helps give the music video its gritty appeal. With the hand-held motion giving a shake to the shot, the location can become more personal to the viewer. Close-ups were also used within the music video along side Extreme Close-ups to show the emotions of band members while performing, these emotion were mirrored when low angled shots were exercised to shows the band members anger, these emotion relate to the lyrics of ‘Processed beats’.

The editing was the most interesting aspect within this music video as fast cut rates that were not in time with the beat, lip-syncing used and post production effects were also evident, especially towards the end. The simple filters that were used help create a surreal feeling to the visual, as unusual shades from a range of colours were apparent. ‘Processed Beats’ also lacks a narrative and with mainly performances from band members I find the video to be simply classed as a performance video.

We found the costume to be unsurprising as the music videos location is a gritty warehouse and a forest so dirty shirts, jeans, etc would be what is expected. As the locations are gritty we felt the props being keep to a minimal is necessary but also key props such as the dirty fridge along with burned-out chairs and even cockroaches and other insects crawling round help set the mood for the rest of the video. Lighting was interesting within ‘Processed Beats’ as the spotlights in the background of the forest would normally be hidden. This was a deliberate ploy by the director as establishes a disjointed feeling, which in turn matches the lyrics of the song.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SzEbYDcUtxE

Target Audience

Our Video is aimed a young adults between the ages 15-24, as  the lyrics of the song talk about a prostitute and one of her clients which may not be suitable for young children.

the main audience for our video will reflect the fan base of the band (indie rockers and info about).

However it may appeal to older aging rockers who enjoy the music due to the genre and similar artist such as The Kings of Leon and The Enemy.We decided that it will it be not gender specific but will portray all characters of the song in order to appeal to the widest viewing audience possible.


If we were to promote the album, we would like the poster to appear in music magazines such as NME and Kerrang as the people that read these magazines are more representative of our target audience. We would also want it to advertise it on television after the watershed as some songs have a warning of parental advisory and that is when the audience is mainly young adults. Our music video was inspired from music such as The Libertines and Oasis which to have an indie following, where not many not many young children would be aware of the band, and if they are it would be through older siblings and parents.

When The Sun Goes Down Lyrics

Who's that girl there?
I wonder what went wrong
So that she had to roam the streets
She dunt do major credit cards
I doubt she does receipts
It's all not quite legitimate

And what a scummy man
Just give him half a chance
I bet he'll rob you if he can
Can see it in his eyes,
Yeah, that he's got a driving ban
Amongst some other offences

And I've seen him with girls of the night
And he told Roxanne to put on her red light
They're all infected but he'll be alright
Cause he's a scumbag, don't you know
I said he's a scumbag, don't you know!

Although you're trying not to listen
Overt your eyes and staring at the ground
She makes a subtle proposition
"I'm sorry love I'll have to turn you down"

He must be up to something
What are the chances sure it's more than likely
I've got a feeling in my stomach
I start to wonder what his story might be

They said it changes when the sun goes down
Around here

Look here comes a Ford Mondeo
Isn't he Mister Inconspicuous?
And he don't even have to say 'owt
She's in the stance ready to get picked up

Bet she's delighted when she sees him
Pulling in and giving her the eye
Because she must be fucking freezing
Scantily clad beneath the clear night sky
it doesn't stop in the winter, no
Around here

They said it changes when the sun goes down
Over the river going out of town

What a scummy man
Just give him half a chance
I bet he'll rob you if he can
Can see it in his eyes that he's got a nasty plan
I hope you're not involved at all
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-M0q8GgzZM

Deciding The Final Song

Firstly we looked at a range of different songs from various genres in particular R’n’B and Indie Pop, as we felt they had narrative to their songs, which therefore could translate into our own video.


We did consider using a Dubstep song  such a Kode9's Nine Samurai, in order of making a more Art House video. However we felt that a song with an element of narrative and/or performance would be perferred.

Eventually we decided to us the song When The Sun Goes Down by Arctic Monkeys as the lyrics engaged a large modern audience when it was released in 2006.

Song Ideas

Justin Timberlake - Love Stoned

MGMT- Love Always Remains

The White Stripes- My Doorbell

 











Bethany Joy Lenz- Elsewhere

Arctic Monkeys- When The Sun Goes Down

Burial- Raver

Kode9- Pass The Red Stipe

Vampire Weekend- White Sky

Twisted Wheel- You Stole The Sun

The Drums- Down By the Water

 










Oasis- She's Electric

The Drums- Me In The Moon

Rusko- Cockney Thug