Complete Blog.

July 2010

Replica of pop video and lip sync exercise - gaining experience with Adobe Premier Pro

September 2010

Introduction to entropy/redundancy within music video

October 2010

Research into music videos belonging to a similar genre, introduction to narrative theory in music video, and initial digipak research

November 2010

Research into music video auteurs, music video pitch, in depth research into the content of my music video (mimes, scopitones and the soundies), research into specific digipak designs and beginning of digipak production

December 2010

Location shots, further digipak and album art research, digipak photoshoots and image manipulation, audience feedback, finished print production work and planning of the music video cast

January 2011

Analysis of shot types in other music videos, research into inspiring films, time planning for the music video, animatic storyboard and shot planning, research into film filters and effects, props and costume planning, details of the first video shoot and audience feedback

Febuary 2011

Finished music video and question one of the evalutation "In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?"

March 2011 - Questions 2, 3 and 4 the evaluation: "How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?", "What have you learned about your audience feedback?" and "How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?"

This blog is now complete and ready for assessment.

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

Research and Planning

I think this stage of my coursework was where I made the most use of Web 2.0. In terms of finding inspiration for the music video task, the social networking and video streaming site 'Youtube' proved to be the most effective for material. It featured official band websites, which included music videos for the band. It also contained fan-made videos for Fren

ch film, which proved incredibly useful as it was a quick and easy forum to access particular scenes and clips out of the films. Due to the fact that the internet is global, I was able to access media from all over the world, thus giving me better research resources. I was able to search for bands who belong to the same genre of Two Door Cinema Club (the band who I created a marketing package for), and learn about genre conventions. David Buckingham argues that "genre is not simply given by the culture, rather, it is in a constant process of negotiation and change". This definitely proved to be true - through the use of Youtube, I was able to learn about and understand 'indie' genre conventions, gather ideas of my own and then

develop them into something original.

Another interactive website I have made great use out throughout the entirety of my A Level course has been blogger.com. This has allowed me to present my research and planning effectively, and embed HTML codes, allowing me to feature videos from websites such as youtube and slid

eshows from websites such as slideshare.net. This is another example of web 2.0, as the website has allowed me to both consume media and then create media for other internet users.

For the planning stages, I made use of Windows Movie Maker to create an animatic story board. I drew the pictures out on paper, used a scanner to get the pictures onto the computer, and then organised them in windows movie maker to create a storyboard which responded to the music that would later be used on our music video. This proved particularly useful later on in production stages, as I could refer back to the animatic story board I had previously made to make it easier to organize video clips.

When organizing cast meetings, video shoots and audience feedback focal groups, my 'Blackberry Smartphone' became very useful as it was a quick way to contact the necessary people required for the different aspects of my media coursework. Without new communications technology, it would have been a lot more difficult to arrange video shoots, thus making our music video a lot less successful.

Production

For my print production tasks especially, my Canon EOS 450d was an incredibly important and useful piece of Media technology. It allowed me to take professional looking photographs, as opposed to taking photographs on a mobile phone or a digital camera. I could experiment with ISO levels, so I could achieve an ideal white balance for my photographs, which in conjunction with studio lighting allowed me to take a successful photograph. The auto-focus setting made it easy to get a clear and focused picture. The 18 - 55 mm lens allowed me to take a variety of shots, from close up to long shot. In my opinion, this was one of the most vital pieces of technology for my print production coursework, because it allowed me to take a variety of high mega-pixel shots, which were then easy to edit in Adobe Photoshop, which in conjunction with each other helped me create a successful print production pack.

Adobe Photoshop CS5 was really useful for both my print production task and my music video. I designed the entirety of my print production task on Photoshop, and was the ideal media device for doing the job. I made use of brightness and contrast filters, to make a more distinctive monochrome image. The layers feature and the magic wand tool allowed me to edit the image so I kept the distinctive red braces on my photographs, which looked affective with the black and white image. The clonestamp tool allowed me to alter any make-up mistakes, and the burn tool allowed me to make darker aspects of the photograph more distinctive. The clonestamp tool was also incredibly useful when merging images together, which was a key aspect of my digipak design. It made it easy to arrange text on the pictures, and chose an appropriate point size and colour for the design. Using professional media technology such as Adobe Photoshop allowed us to replicate something that would be produced in the media industry.

We also used Adobe Photoshop for aspects of the music video task. We wanted to create a vignette to differentiate between the flashback clips and the clips in the 'present'. Do do this we filled the page using the radial gradient tool and then applied a gaussian blur filter to make the vignette more subtle. We then saved it as a PSD file and imported it onto our music video. Without the use of Adobe Photoshop we wouldn't have been able to create a distinctive differentiate our flashbacks, thus making the narrative in our video less clear and understandable for the target audience. Also for our music video task, we experimented with the RGB Curves filters on Photoshop to find out which settings looked the most successful on a photograph. After doing this, we applied the same settings to our music video, and were able to put a colour filter that we were happy with onto our music video. This was essential as we wanted our video to have an 'unpolished vintage' look, and without the colour filters it would have looked more modern due to the high quality image produced by the HDV camera.

For the entirety of our filming, we used a Panasonic HDV camera. I found these cameras very easy to use, as I had previously used DV cameras which recorded onto a tape, which made the clips a lot harder to manipulate in post production. I found the zoom on the top of the camera was easy to operate and allowed us to create effective and professional shots. It also made it easy to quickly view clips we had previously created, as the clips were recorded straight onto an SD card as opposed to a video tape. In conjunction with a camera tripod, we were able to create smooth pans that replicated shots created in film and other music videos.

For our music video task, the main piece of software we used was a programme called Adobe Premier Pro. This allowed us to import video clips, and arrange them in succession to one another to create a understandable narrative for our music video. We used the razor tool to cut up clips and create cuts that we were happy with. I had previously worked with video editing software such as windows movie maker, but this software went into a lot more depth and allowed you to make much more precise cuts, which meant aspects of the video such as the lip sync could be a lot more accurate. It allowed us to create continuity edits, where bits of our video moved smoothly between two shot to a close up to a POV shot. However, we did find parts of this software limiting, for example when we first created our storyboard we intending to use a film grain effect on our flashback clips, which would have created a much bigger distinction between clips than our vignette. In this case, technology determined the final outcome of our video, and I think our video would have been more successful had we have been able to produce clips with a film grain effect.

Evaluation

For the evaluation stages of my media coursework, I made use of Web 2.0 and social networking sites such as Facebook. This was a quick and easy forum to broadcast my media work and receive audience feedback from quite a varied audience. I used this especially for my print production work, as I was easily able to upload an image of my digipak and advert and other facebook users were able to post comments and opinions underneath. As a result of this, Web 2.0 provided an easy way to get constructive feedback on my work, which then allowed me to improve my work and create a more successful media product.

When presenting my evaluation Microsoft Powerpoint and Slideshare.net provided an easy and more interesting way to present information. I was able to put labels on my work and demonstrate my ideas through using images and text boxes. I could then upload it to a website called slideshare.net and embed the HTML code into my blog. This is another example of Web 2.0, and corresponds to David Gauntlett's theory of a "sit-back-and-be-told" media culture transforming into a 'making and doing culture' - I was able to publish my own work on the internet and contribute to online media.

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

For my A2 course this year, I had to create a print production package that consisted of a magazine advert and a digipak for an album. Subsequent to that, I had to find a partner and direct and create a music video, keeping in mind the themes from my print production work to create a coherent marketing package. Prior to starting the print production work, my partner had already decided upon the basic narrative for our music video, and upon the song we were going to use. We knew that we were going to make our music video about two mime characters, even before we had created a storyboard for it, therefore we both chose to feature a mime character on our print production work. The idea for this was to create a house style which meant the whole package worked well together, in order to attract our target audience and make it easily recognisable as the bands house style.

Question 2.

Dan Biddle, 17: "You have an excellent degree of coherence in your three media products, The usage of the mime has been maximised to its full potential here, well done!! You've made it very clear that all three are related and linked by using the same colour schemes throughout and i think that is the main reason for your high level of coherence, that and that you've used the same actors and costumes, and font. I'm finding it very hard to see a fault in your work, the only thing that immediately springs to mind is: where is the female mime in your print work? she features very heavily in the video, but alas, she is no where to be seen on the advert or digipak, one would expect her to be there having seen the video. My favourite aspect of your print work is the digipak cover, i love how you've taken a reel of photos and lined them all up like that, it really does look FANTASTIC!!"

Elizabeth Money, 18: "yeah they are coherent, the colours & style are all the same and the mime is present in all three making it easy to tell they all come from the same artist"

After carefully analyzing different aspects of my digipak design, magazine advert and music video, I concluded that the main link between the 3 was the use of the 'mime' costume, which formed a coherent link between the three media texts. Aspects such as lighting, font and colour scheme differentiated between the print production and music video, however I thought the 'mime' theme featured throughout was enough to create a coherent house style for the product and band.

My audience responses shared a different view to mine, and seemed to think that the colours and font were coherent throughout. Although I do not agree, I am pleased that they think that there is a coherent house style, meaning that the marketing package would work well together, and that I've created a successful "brand" for band/album.

Question 3: What have you learned about your audience feedback?

In order to understand whether our music video was successful, it was essential that I carried out an audience feedback survey. To begin with, I gathered 5 people who belong to my target audience, who would for example:

• Be a student, of around 15 - 25 years of age
• Listens to 'indie' music often
• Has an interest in music video and film
• Be an 'aspirer' or a 'radical'
• Have the cultural capital of contemporary French cinema/narrative form
• A - C1 demographic

I thought carefully about which questions I would ask my focus group, so as to effectively glean what aspects of the video would have to be changed to create a more successful media product.

• Do you understand the narrative?
  This was a particularly important question, as we were concerned as to whether the plot of our music video was clear. This was because the story wasn't told in chronological order, and parts of the story were conveyed through flashbacks, therefore it may not have been necessarily clear to our audience what was happening.
• Does it comply to the indie genre?
  This was also important because the video needed to 'fit in' with the song, otherwise the target audience for the song might not aspire to watch the video. I purposely selected an audience of 'indie' music listeners so they were more likely to take a preferred reading to the music video.
• Are the edits smooth?
  This was just a general question, because in my opinion the video would have been unsuccessful if the transitions between clips were jumpy and uneven.
• Is it easy to understand that parts of the video are flashbacks?
  This question is to do with the narrative; if the flashbacks were successful than so is the narrative.
• What is your opinion on the French subtitles?
  This was the most entropic feature of our music video, and we were unsure as to whether our target audience would find them effective, or whether they would find them annoying as they are in a foreign language. The intention of these flashbacks was to add to the stereotypically 'French' mise-en-scene.
• Is the mise-en-scene effective?
  This was a key part of our music video, as we thought carefully about aspects such as the background, the bikes used, the costumes, the café location, etcetera. The narrative also rely's a lot on the mise-en-scene, so this was an incredibly important factor.
• What would you improve?
  This was the most important question, as it would allow me to discover what my target audience didn't like about the music video, and whether they took an oppositional reading to it. Upon editing a second time around, these comments would allow us to create a more successful music video.

Conclusion of initial audience feedback:

• My target audience did understand the general plot and narrative of our music video, which was a crucial aspect in ensuring that our music video was successful.
• The answers I received for the genre question were quite varied, however they all said that the video did comply to the 'indie' genre. An answer I found particularly interesting was "Yes, i think that it's a bit different from other stuff, and that's what 'indie' is about." From this, it can be gathered that the entropic aspects of our music video were successful. We were concerned that audience members would take an oppositional reading to our music video, due to misunderstanding of the narrative or the video being unsuitable for the genre, however my focus group understood the narrative and thought the video was suitable for the genre.
• The cuts between shots are smooth, and cut in time with the beat.
• 80% of my focus group understood that parts of the video are flashbacks, however one person in my focus group didn't understand that until watching it a second time round. One of the members of my focus group gleaned that the flashback clips were represented through the use of a vignette around the clips, which I found surprising as I thought it was quite a subtle aspect of the music video. In order to improve the understanding of the flashbacks for all of my focus group, a more obvious way of representing the flashbacks would have to be used, for example: gray scaling the flashback clips or applying a film grain effect.
• There was a very mixed response to the French subtitles. Part of this could be due to the fact that my audience members lacked the cultural capital, however we could not expect the target audience to understand the French subtitles as it was an English music video. On the other hand, the members of my focus group who disliked the subtitles due to misunderstanding of the language lacked the cultural capital to know that the subtitles are a common feature of French film, particularly pre 1950's French film. The intention of these subtitles was to add to the stereotypically French mise-en-scene, however I think that in some cases this didn't come across, and perhaps in order to improve the music video from the point of view of my target audience, the French subtitles should be removed. Some audience members did say that it added to the French ambiance of the video, however due to the mixed response I feel that they weren't as successful as we hoped they would be.
• The mise-en-scene was an effective part of the music video, and everyone in my focus group found that the costumes/locations/make-up worked effectively together and helped create a general French feel to the video.
• 2 out of 5 people in my focus group mentioned the long reverse zoom at the end of the music video, and said that perhaps the shot was too long and needed something adding to stop it dragging. I agree with what they have said, and think that to improve the music video we would have to interweave flashbacks between the clip so that the last 20 seconds aren't boring for the audience.

I was pleased that nobody in my focus group said that they wanted a more conclusive end to the story, as we wanted to leave that open to the audiences interpretation. We wanted to leave the video on a cliff-hanger, otherwise the narrative in our video would have complied to the hypodermic needle theory, leaving nothing to the imagination and interpretation of the audience.

Although my focus group gave useful answers, I felt as though this group as slightly biased as they were all aged 17 - 18 and didn't cover the whole age range of my target audience. To gain a more varied and unbiased response, I posted our video on the social networking websites Facebook and Youtube, and asked people to give their opinions as a whole, and whether they understood the narrative. Some of the responses I received were:

• "This is really goood :D The video and the song match perfectly and I like the effects at the start. Wish I knew how to do that haha"
• "So at first I felt like I was watching a Panic at the disco video... but no I really like it. Colours are good (iunno if you've put some kinda filter on there but the greyish overlay looks cool and goes with the whole indieish feel of it). The one thing i would say is that I think the stop motion should be a bigger part of it. Like that works so well, should be more."
• "I really like this, I think it's really well done. The story is good and clear, nicely put together"

• "Really like the song and the whole Parisian clown/mime theme, works really well and its really entropic. The filters with the colours is really effective and the edits of the shots, like the spinning around and sitting is great movement, making it more interesting. The narrative is clear, and lipsyncing is good but could be a bit better.

  Overall, its awesome! :D"

• "Understandable narrative - particularly like the first shot sequence - leaves you questioning why they are both so standoffish - this is later answered in the video - very creative"

These responses to my music video are a lot more unbiased, because the people responding to it cover an age range from 16 - 22, and are mixed gender. I was particularly pleased that everyone who answered took a preferred reading to our video and understood the themes and narrative in our music video. Quite a few responses claimed that they liked the video, which meant they were entertained by our music video, thus fulfilling it's purpose. This also means that my intended audience had the cultural capital to understand the video, which means that we successfully addressed our target audience of 'indie' music listeners. I agree with the response about the stop motion; we intended to incorporate more stop motion into our music video, however we discovered that the video would have looked disjointed due to the difference in quality and lighting between photographs taken on a DSLR camera and video clips shot on a HDV camera. As a result of this, we had to delete all of the stop motion photographs taken on a DSLR and take a new selection with the photograph mode on the HDV camera. To do this more successfully, we should've have anticipated a potential image quality difference and tested them before shooting the final video.

I was curious to see how people outside my target audience group responded to my audience, and whether they responded well to the media text or whether they took an oppositional reading to the text due to factors such as age, cultural background, etcetera. I asked an unbiased middle-aged 'middle class' female to watch the music video, and to give her opinions on the video as a whole and the narrative. Here is her response:

"The story of the video is clear. I was concerned about the clown part but realize it is relevant to the plot. I thought the video put more meaning to the lyrics of the song. I found the video entertaining and wanted to see more!"

I was quite surprised by her response, as I didn't expect her to enjoy the video. She took a negotiated reading to one part of the video; she found the scene inappropriate, however understood that it was relevant with it's contribution to the narrative.

I also asked a 13 year old boy from the same background the same question, and this was his response:

"It looks very professional and it's well directed, the plot was clear. But I did think the video became a little repetitive"

Again, he understood the themes and narrative of the music video, which was pleasing because people belonging to my target audience and people outside my target audience understood the plot. Before making the video, we were concerned that due to the fact that the story was told in non-chronological order, people would fail to understand the values expressed in the text.

After receiving this audience feedback, I have concluded that the video was understandable, however in order to improve upon editing, these factors could be altered:

• Remove some/all of the French subtitles
• Alter the lip sync slightly
• Add in more stop motion so the video is more coherent within itself.