Evaluation part 3

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

Evaluation part 2

George Toothill's evaluation part 2

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

3. What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Below is a copy of the script i used:

I think the combination of the three products work well together. We have tried to create a brand identity between the three; we did this by trying to use some key stylistic features in all of them. We used black and white, stylistic photography for both the ancillary tasks as well as using very stylistic shots with in the music video it self. This really helped us to create cohesion between the three. The stylistic features are very representative of the Indie genre you nearly always see very arty, very minimal front covers for CD DVD covers in the Indie genre. This is one of the conventions that we have broke however, because we have used a band shot rather then the traditional fancy arty illustrations. We tried to link the narrative between the three as well, We did this by including photograph’s of large bank like buildings on the digipak as well as using the same character, not just for the music video but also for the magazine advert and the digipak.

We held a focus group to help us gage feedback for the main product; this really helped us to improve our video because the audience that we used for the focus group were of the same age of the target audience of the band. They pointed out flaws in our music video like the fact the newspaper section of it really didn’t work, it didn’t fit our funky upbeat nature of the video and looked out of place. They also said that we should improve it by adding more shots of the character singing directly into the camera. This is a big convention of indie music genre video and is something which we were keen to address.

Evaluation part 1

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

The finished Music video

Evaluation 14th December Deadline

Evaluation - The concept

The concept for our music vidoe isnt a boring essay posted on our blog, what we wanted to do is really liven things up with a interactive DVD. On this dvd will be the music video but as well as this there will be a special features section. This section will be our evaluation we will have special features such as:

• Directors commentary
• Peer feedback session
  
• Convention Discussion
• Director / Producer interview
  

Evaluation - Day one

Today we started our evaluation, first of all we gathered feedback on our music video from carefully picked members of our school community that fit into what our Demographic is for the genre of our music video, this was:

Indie, Young Males and Females Between 16 -25

We gathered the feedback in two different ways, one was with a questionnaire which is on post (XXXXXXX) and then we held a focus group, you can see the focus groups video as part of our extras on our Digipak DVD.

We held these two events to get feedback on our Music video and Print based media tasks (Magazine advert and Digipak). We will be taking the feedback into account and then using it to improve our work.

Our own feedback

Me and Matthew sat down this afternoon and looked at the music video as well, these are a few of the things we thought we could improve

• During the car scene there's a out of focus shot.
• We really didn't like the newspaper part.
• We thought that the edits didn't build up to anything (it was too slow) round the OH my god chorus.
• Think we should re shoot The build up to the chorus (think we should include him screaming into the camera.)
• Add a few more shots into the office scene.
• Add a few more shots where he is throwing the monitor out of the window.

From this we will talk to our actor and re edit and re film the bits that we need to do will give ourselves three days to get to the next cut stage of the project.

Reshooting days

The following are thing things that we need to re shoot, these wont take long to re shoot and it wont take more than a day to do it. We hope to get all this re shot and edited by the Monday 31st November.

• Think we should re shoot The build up to the chorus (think we should include him screaming into the camera.)
• Add a few more shots into the office scene.
• Add a few more shots where he is throwing the monitor out of the window.

Audience feedback - Rough cut

What people liked

The main point the audience made was they liked the car shots done in time lapse, they said that it looked professional and gave the video a stylistic feel. They did also think that the other time-lapse sequences were good, especially the one outside of Northern Rock as it had good intertextual references and references to the narrative.

The other stylistic shots, such as the four way split screen, also went down well. Especially as they were all well lip synced together.

Feedback suggests that people liked the fact we filmed in public places and used real people, adding to the mise-en-scene.

What they didn't like

The glaring point which people made was that the shot in which we use the newspaper headlines did not work, they said that it looked unprofessional compared to the rest of the piece and that it was shoddy in comparison.
It was also pointed out that the guitar solos did not match the music and therefore it looked odd seen as the rest of the video was well synced with both singing and music.

Feedback- The questionaire

Questionnaire

How does our music video compare to others that you have seen?

Do you think it follows the basic conventions of music videos?

What would you keep?

What would you change?

What do you think is particularly effective?

Does it relate to the audience?

Do you think the video fits the Indie genre?

Do our three products work well together and support each others product identity?

What would you do to improve it?

Other comments:

Above is a copy of the questionaire we used for our audience feedback during our first focus group.

Rough cut

This a copy of our rough cut. from this we will gather audience feedback and try to get it to the final cut stage within a few days.

Monitor shot

As you can see from the video below the shot didn't take that long to shoot but took alot longer to think through before hand. Originally we were going to take the shot a school from some steps by a classroom ( see photograph one.) After liaising with the site staff and the teachers we came to the decision that the school wouldn't be a good place to do it because of the danger that it may cause the students and teachers. We therefore decided we would shoot the monitor shot on a flat roof at my house. (photograph 2) As you can see by the video we took a number of precautions so that we weren't hurt and the monitor was smashed safely without causing damage to any of the equipment. To do this all nice and safely we took the following precautions

• Me and Matt stayed well clear of the shot
  
• We used zoom on the cameras so that they weren't too close to get damaged
• We placed a wooden grate in front of one of the cameras so that it wouldn't get damaged by flying debris.

Having done all this, the shot turned out well for us and has become the big finish in our music video.

Filming and photography deadline 16th November 2009

Filming update 13th November

Today we were filming in centenary square outside Starbucks. Today's filming was very good but we did have a hitch towards the end of the filming, that will defiantly be put in the out takes! Today's filming involved our main character finding out the global stock markets have been hit hard by the looming recession.

filming update 12th November

Today we filming the closing sequence of the music video. This is when the main character rushes back to his office just discovering that he has lost all of him money in the stock markets. This is due to the frail stock markets that crippled the worlds financial hubs during 2008 and 2009.

All in all this went very well and will have the rough cut to this part up in the next few days

Filming update 10th November

Today we were meant to be filming some time lapse video on the Bingley bypass but due to unforeseen circumstances (the great British weather) we were not able to film but we have rescheduled the filming for later on this week

Planning Deadline !st Nombember 2009

Locations

Our video requires us to film in numerous locations. There are two major cities in our local area which are easily accessible, Bradford and Leeds. Both of these have areas and traits that we want to exploit so, instead of originally only filming in one, we have chosen to film in both.

The main area of Bradford in which we want to film is Centenary Square.






We like this are as it is a large open space which contains a Starbucks as well as a large plasma board, courtesy of the BBC, which we may use in our video.

Leeds has its own merits in that we will use. The main on these is that it is a busier shopping area and therefore we can use this to our advantage by using the public in our shots and speeding it up whilst the actor remains seated, this is one of the stylistic shots we want to use (Time lapse). As well as this the architecture in Leeds is good to use as there is a nice difference between modern and older builds which we will use selectively. Some of the actually businesses in the city centre will work to our advantage also, given the context of our video, such as Northern Rock.





Our final locations will be our school, and one of our houses. We are using the schools office’s as our protagonist’s office, as the outside of the building is not seen this will not break continuity or look odd hopefully. The houses are a requirement to use as we have certain shots which are potentially dangerous and will require us to clean up afterwards, this way we do not require permission from land owners or local councils.

Risk Assesment

Filming where
Leeds
Bradford
Home
Office
Band shot
Time lapse in the car

What could go wrong.....

Shot Lists

animatic

Props & Expenses

Props

We require a number of props for the video. These include:

• A formal suit for the protagonist
• A suitcase
• Coffee cup
• Old computer monitor
• Instruments (Guitars, Drum Kit)

The suit and suitcase are for the main character, this makes the mise-en-scene more convincing as he is playing a wealthy business man. These props have been provided by the group members and the main actor. Instead of using a suit jacket we used a long formal coat as it was all we had to hand however it has worked well.

We acquired the instruments from our schools music department as well as borrowing a bass guitar from one of the students who is a musician.

The computer monitor took a little more sourcing, at first we thought to use one from our schools technical department, however they were reluctant to allow us take one. We asked around to see if by chance anyone had a spare which also proved unhelpful. Eventually we decided to take a trip to the local tip which has a special area for electrical equipment, after asking permission to look for and take a monitor we found one that perfectly fit what we were looking for.

Expenses

Our expenses are relatively low due to the fact many of our items have been acquired through people we know, therefore for free. We do however have some expenses we have to consider:

• Train fare too and from locations, including those of the actors
• Money for petrol if driving to locations
• Cost of take-out coffee

Godwins thory on music videos

Hear is a list of music video conventions according to Godwins Theory on music videos

Links between lyrics and visuals

Genre Characteristics

Intertextual reference

Voyeurism (direct glaze, other people are looking at artist, insight into artists life, screens and mirrors.)

Demands of the record label

Performance based, narrative based or concept based music video

E-mail to the band

We sent an e-mail to the record label to ask permission to use the particular track, it reads as follows:

To whomever it may concern

I am currently a part of a pair who are studying for our A Level media course. As a part of this, we have to create a music video and after some deliberation we decided that we would like to use the song "Oh my god" by the Kaiser Chiefs. We do not want to infrigne upon copyright material however and therefore we would like to ask your permission to use the track in question. No images of the band or other material produced by your record label will be used in the video.

If you have any questions regarding the product please e-mail me and I would be more than happy to give you details.

We hope to hear from you in due course.

Thank you





Matthew Brown

Ideas

rough ideas for lyrics

below are a few ideas that co-inside with the lyrics

Music Time Line Kaiser Chiefs Oh my god

music time line Kaiser Chiefs Oh my god

Point of song Time (Minutes seconds)

Instrumental 0.28
Verse one 0.48
Small instrumental 0.54
Verse 2 1.17
Chorus 1.40
Verse 3 2.05
Chorus 2.29
Long Instrumental 2.50
Chorus 3.25
Short instrumental 3.35

Chosen Song lyrics "Oh My God"

"Oh My God"

Time on your side that will never end
The most beautiful thing you can ever spend
But you work in a shirt with your name tag on it
Drifting apart like a plate tectonic
It don't matter to me
'Cos all I wanted to be
Was a million miles from here
Somewhere more familiar
Too much time spent dragging the past up
I didn't see you not looking when I messed up
Settling down in your early twenties
Sucked more blood than a backstreet dentist
It don't matter to me
'Cos all I wanted to be
Is a million miles from here
Somewhere more familiar
Oh my god I can't believe it
I've never been this far away from home
And oh my god I can't believe it
I've never been this far away from home
And oh my god I can't believe it
I've never been this far away from home
And oh my god I can't believe it
I've never been this far away from home
Great rulers make for greater glory
The only thing growing is our history
Knock me down I'll get right back up again
I'll come back stronger than a powered up Pac-Man
It don't matter to me
'Cos all I wanted to be
Was a million miles from here
Somewhere more familiar
Oh my god, I can't believe it
I've never been this far away from home
And oh my god I can't believe it
I've never been this far away from home
And oh my god I can't believe it
I've never been this far away from home
And oh my god I can't believe it
I've never been this far away from home

[Instrumental Break]

Oh my, god I can't believe it
I've never been this far away from home
And oh my god I can't believe it
I've never been this far away from home
And oh my god I can't believe it
I've never been this far away from home
And oh my god I can't believe it
I've never been this far away from home

Narrative

In the end we chose our song around the narrative that we had devised. The idea came from the recession, being such a major issue at the moment. We decided that we would have a high flying main character who loses everything during the collapse of the stock exchange.

We will start with the character getting ready for work in his formal attire, making his breakfast and other mundane activities. We would then see him arriving in the city with time to spare and so he will stop for a coffee.

It was at this point our idea for the DVD cover came to mind and the main shot for our production. This was having our character sat at a table with a huge plasma screen in shot which tells him of the crash. This then ties to the lyrics of "Oh my god!" as the character begins to run to his office, loosing his coffee and briefcase in the process.

He will proceed then through the city centre towards his office. At this point we will interject into the main footage with shots of time lapse, band shots and direct singing to the camera.

The climax of the video will be in his office as he realises he has lost everything and sweeps everything from his desk and proceeds to destroy the office.

Song Selection

Song Selection

Originally to try and find our idea we listened to different songs and tried to think what we could do with them. We listened to a multitude of songs and our first choice was ‘Crazy’ by Gnarles Barkley. However we soon realised that it was not as easy to work with as we had first expected and we struggled to find ideas to fit the song and so we started looking again.

We then changed tack and tried to find an idea and work a song around the idea. After some deliberation we came settled on the idea of using the recession and telling a story about someone whose life had been affected by it. The first song we thought to use was Gloria Gaynor’s ‘I Will Survive’. However we were dissuaded from this song but kept the idea. A little while later we came to settle on the song ‘Oh My God’ by the Keiser Chiefs and this is the song we will be using for our production.

Things to do

Mood board

Pitch

Music video time line

Song selection

Lyrics

Band research

Emailing the band

Location

Cast

Props

Expenses

Filming over feedback

Rough cuts

Feedback on rough cuts

http://11musicvideo09.blogspot.com/

Mandatory List

Mandatory List

Our group has been instructed to keep a track of important things involved with the production of our music video.

• Storyboard
• Shot list
• Timeline (This ensures you have enough footage for the whole song)
  
• Location Scouting (Including images of real places)
  
• Props List (Images to support)
  
• Costume Details (Images to support)
  
• Confirmation of Actors
  
• Call Sheet (When + Where you will film, Who is needed, What etc...)

Casting

Our protagonist is a fairly suave and cocky individual, he has a comfortable job with a comfortable wage. We wanted an actor who personified this image.

Our first idea was to use someone in their mid thirties as they would fit the age of the character and would make it more believable, our main choices however had difficult schedules to work around and after a couple of weeks we began to find it inconvenient and decided we needed someone who could be more flexible.

We auditioned members of our 6th form, although they are younger than we would have liked some looked older than others. We decided to use Craig Hughes as our main actor, he pulls off the look we want as well as looking older than his actually age. As well as this he is conveniant to work with and is able to use a guitar which will come in handy for the band shots.

video mood board

Music videos we've got inspiration from

Band sequence:

we have studied lots of videos over the past few months, not just music videos, but videos from all over YouTube, from one hit wonders the cult classics. the videos below are all concentrated on the band sequence part of our music video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JCZfJ5ai07U

There are two bits in this music video that i particularly like, they are the band shots and opening instrumental part. i really like the band shots because of the monotones of the shots with their very contrasted look. i will really try and push this into our music video because i think its a very strong piece of camera work and editing. The second part of this music video that i like is the car shots, where the camera is in the car as well as the time lapsed video of the highways. these two pieces of very inventive camera shots work extremely well together.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dOibtqWo6z4

The second video is Matallica: turn the page. again I'm not interested in all the music video I'm just interested in the band shot part. in this video they have used very nice lighting that i really want to replicate in my music video.

Opening part of the music video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZ749418aq8&feature=related

above is a great piece of time lapse video, this is just simply video that has been speeded up in an editing software. like the Kings Of Leon music video i want to try and use the time lapse to formulate some sort of opening sequence to the video.

Brittany Spears Textual analysis

Britney spears

Britney spears was born on the 2^nd of December 1981 in Louisiana, united states of America. From a young aged she was a born entertainer, aged 11 she joined the Mickey mouse club making it as a musketeer, she did this along side of some of today’s biggest artists, such as Justin Timberlake. Britney spears has always been in the pop genre when it comes to music. Her first big break came in the late 90s when she signed for jive recordings, this was quickly followed by the release of her debut album, hit me baby one more time. This was release in early 1999

Right from the start Britney was a role model that young girls could really look up to. She shows this in her first video, hit me baby one more time. Where she acted all sweet and innocent and perfectly likeable. In this video she was always well dressed never showing too much of her body off. This portrayed her as a bit of a good girl. This wasn’t just shown within the music videos though she was very clear in a number of occasions that she would not commit to have sex before marriage

Sadly this was the end of the sweet and innocent look for Britney as she quickly had countless number relationships and this follows the pattern in her videos as well. They got a lot more sexy and seductive as they went on, this was shown in toxic where she looked to be joining the mile high club at one point! During this time she is wearing an extremely sexy seductive airhostess outfit that gives us the impression of her putting herself out a bit. Also during the same video she was seen to climbing onto a motorcycle with a young black man, this gives us the impression that she is very racy, sexy and dangerous.

There are close ups all the way through her work but they are for totally different reasons, one is showing us that she is very sweet and innocent and the other shows her wearing a very short, seductive, sparkly dress. The innocence is shown during the music video, one more time where she is talking into the camera about her innocence and telling us about a boy that she likes. There are other times when she is looking directly into the camera though, all the way through toxic the video cuts to a very sexy dance. She’s not wearing very much and it portrays her as all grown up and very sexy. Its not just the camera angles that make her look sexy and racy, editing cuts add to this effect too. An example of this is again in hit me baby one more time. Here she is dancing and talking into the camera but the takes are very simple, easy to understand, continuity editing. On the other hand though toxic is extremely quick editing and this helps gives the video an impression of sexiness and seductive.

Britney was very popular at this time because pop was the big genre of music that was becoming extremely popular due to young up and coming talent like Britney and like Justin Timberlake as well as British acts like busted and Mcfly.

Quick music video analysis

Coldplay Viva la vida

· Talking into camera

· Very quick cuts

· Cartoon effect over the singers (stylish)

· Band shots through instrumental

· “bells were ringing” actually happens (not living out all the dialogue though

Arctic Monkeys Fluorescent Adolescent

· Looks like gangster film rather than music video

· No band shots

· Small amounts singing into camera

· Lots of fancy different shots, high low angles

· Point of view shots

· Flash backs to kids

Kaiser Chiefs Ruby

· Instrumental opening

· Artistic building going on around performers

· “Their living in the slow lane

· Singing direct into camera

· Band shots lots of detailed shots

· Lots of low angle making the people look even taller over the small city

· City meant to represent London (can see this from the ghirkin building)

Jay-z Run this town

· Starts of a fight scene diagetic noise from fighters

· Noise fades out performers singing into camera

· Lots of different locations

· 75, 80 cuts in a minute of video

· No band shots

· Talking straight into camera (knowing that its there )

mood board

This mood board represents issues such as the recession, whilst including the Kaiser Chiefs (the band we are using). The images of the beggar and them an looking at the board covered in red are the main images as they have the meaning which we are looking for which is the sense of loss and depression.

History of music videos

How Video Didn’t Kill the Radio Star

1. What is the key media language feature of popular music videos?

Moving images are edited in time with the music.

2. What are the main reasons given for the proliferation (rise) in popular music in the 1940s and 1950s?

Because of the introduction for the audience to band performances and also the introduction of music charts.

3. In the 1960s, what forms and conventions of the music video were defined?

Carefully choreographed performances, studio recordings, close ups and high and low angle shots.

4. Why is Bohemian Rhapsody so revered (held in high esteem)?

Because of its innovative use of special effects and is considered a first for music videos.

5. Representations – what 5 sub-genres or representations are defined in the article?

Documentary, Animation, Abstract, Parodic

6. What technological factors are changing the conventions of music videos?

Internet, digital technology (CGI etc.)

7. When was MTV first transmitted?

August 1^st 1981

8. How has the change in audience demographics (i.e., age) changed music videos?

They can appeal directly to the audience they are intending to reach

9. What is the impact of websites such as MySpace and YouTube on the costs and potential audiences of music videos?

They make it easier to access and it means they have a potentially much wider audience.

Music Programmes on TV and From Ballads to the Box

1. What is the weakness with lumping all music television together?

Not all music is the same, different backgrounds etc.

2. What effect has niche audiences had on the conventions of music videos?

There are specific channels catering to these niche audiences meaning they do not have to please a wide range of people and can distribute on these channels.

3. What is meant by “music channels recognise the limitations of their appeal”?

Because only certain people will watch certain music and so they can only appeal to this audience.

4. Why has the concept of peak viewing for changed?

Because people will watch it at different times which are not conventionally peak compared to terrestrial channels peak time.

5. How many viewers does emap claim to have at any one moment, and why would this be attractive to advertisers?

24,300, because this means they have a steady and relatively large audience meaning sponsors can advertise at any time with the same effect.

6. How has television democratised culture?

Because people are choosing what they want to see and the companies and channels deliver different things to different audiences.

Music Television 2

1. What is synaesthesia?

Picturing sound in your mind

2. How do music videos use narrative and performance?

They are used to give the song a certain meaning or mood

3. What is meant by the “meta narrative of the star image”?

It is the narrative of the star themselves and their public image

4. Explain the following 3 ways in which music videos work:
1. Illustration – Illustrating the meaning of the lyrics
2. Amplification – the mark of the auteur
3. Disjuncture – Songs which ignore the original meaning and make their own

5. Name and explain the 5 technical aspects of music videos

Speed –

Meat –

Beats –

Lighting and colour –

Mise-en-scene -

Channel ownership

Channel	Classic fm	Kiss	Scuzz
What does the colour and font of the logo suggest about the type of music on the channel ?	The san serif font gives us the impression that its older music because san serif reminds us of older more formal writing.	The colours and font give us the idea that the station is abit girly, the baby pink with a bold serif font.	The colours are very plain, black and white gives us the impression that its aimed at males
What objects or shapes are used in the logo and what do this Suggest about the channel?	The red “F” gives us the impression that the music channel is actually a bit edgy, maybe there is something different about this channel compared to others.	The logo have very cleverly included a heart shape in the two “s” This gives us a big impression that this radio station is girly	The silhouetted shapes give the impression that the channel is very dark and maybe rock, indie in its music genre.
What kind of audience does the logo give off?	An older audience because as I explained before the san serif font is very formal and you expect to see this in older pieces of writing	A younger female audience is the I have in mind, because of the colours of the logo and the heart shape hidden in the “s”	A male punk, indie, rock adueince is given off
who owns the channel?	Global radio

Channel ownership

Roles

Lighting Engineer - George

Storyboard - Matt

Cinematographer - George

Location Manager - Matt

Director - George

Casting Director - Matt

Artistic Director - George

Chief Editor - George

Producer - Matt

Scriptwriter - Matt

Casting Director - Matt

Sound and Foley Engineering - George