Laura's Final Evaluation Question 4

Laura's Final Evaluation Question 3

Evaluation Question 3: What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Laura's Final Evaluation Question 2

Laura's Final Evaluation Question 1

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

 

     In the research stage of the coursework I looked at a lot of videos, album adverts and CD covers within the rock/pop genre. Because the song I was going to use is on the borderline between rock and pop it actually gave me a lot more freedom because  I could look at products from two different genres. Whilst looking at the videos, adverts and CD covers I looked out for conventions that I would also be able to use. This gave us ideas as to what would make our media products look realistic.

 

     Whilst looking at music videos the first thing I noticed was how the aesthetic of the video created a mood to fit the genre of music. A lot of this was to do with costume. We had originally decided to use a white lacy dress paired with Doc Martens for the feminine grunge look we saw in many other videos such as Flyleaf's 'Sorrow' and Christina Perri's 'Jar of Hearts'. We eventually decided to develop the convention of costume and instead of our original idea we used a black lacy dress paired with tights, Doc Martens and a leather jacket. To choose the costume we created an audience profile and within it we talked about the shops that the consumer would shop at. Using influences from clothes available in these shops, music videos that we researched and images that have previously been used to promote albums we created a look for the artist and the band. We found that in many bands with a female lead singer and an all male band a lot of the focus is put on to the female in terms of costume. This may be because of the male gaze theory. This means that the males wear very simplistic clothing, usually jeans and a tshirt in a dark colour. We used this convention, putting our the two male band members in black jeans and a black tshirt, and one also wore a denim shirt over the top. Their look was casual but slightly alternative to fit with the genre of music.

     We also saw that in most of the videos and album pictures that on the female dark eye make up was used and we also wanted to use this convention. We decided on mainly natural looking make up apart from around the eyes, which were made dark and striking with eyeliner. We used a face powder and very little eyeliner on the male band members. This was a development from the conventions we had seen because although males would wear facial make up for professional videos so that they don't look washed out under the lights and the camera, they may not wear eyeliner. We did this because it gave more of an alternative look.     

     Another part of the look of the video that was important was the lighting and colouring. This also applies to the advert and digipak. In the video we used the convention of gloomy lighting and tried to make the colours of the video look dull. We did this by filming the outdoor shots when it was cold and overcast. This also made sure there was no glare from the sun whilst filming. Obviously, within big budget music videos they could use smoke machines and effects but we worked with the natural setting we had. Something that links to this is the use of black and white. The videos for Evanescence's 'My Immortal' and Automatic Loveletter's 'Hush' are completely in black and white but we developed this by using black and white shots in between full colour shots. The black and white shots in our video were used for flashbacks. Using a different effect made it easier to understand that they were a different part of the video and made the narrative easier to comprehend.

     I carried this over to the digipak and adverts by using mainly greys and blacks rather than bright colours. I felt that this captured the feel of the song and the genre of the music. I found that a lot of rock genre album covers used very little colour, some being completely black and white such as My Chemical Romance's 'The Black Parade' and Black Stone Cherry's 'The Devil & The Deep Blue Sea'. I developed this convention because although my advert and digipak were mainly grey, black and white I used a deep red/pink colour to add interest. I was inspired by some album artwork from My Chemical Romance's 'The Black Parade' album to do this. Overall, I wanted my media products to look saturated in colour to set a mood that fit with the genre of music. I think I used and developed the conventional use of colour within pop/rock music videos, adverts and album covers.   

       Using both narrative and performance shots together is a convention we saw in nearly all of the videos we watched in the research stage. We used this convention for video, filming the narrative flashback and field shots as well as the band shots. Videos such as Flyleaf's 'Sorrow' and Evanescence's 'My Immortal' use separately filmed shots of both purely performance shots and narrative shots. These shots are then interspersed with each other to give variety. In both of these videos the narrative shots are of the lead female singer walking and portraying a lot of emotion to the camera. We were heavily influenced by this, our field shots being based on the same idea. We were also influenced by the structure of Taylor Swift's music video for 'Love Story'. The narrative and performance shots come together at the end, showing that there was a link between them all a long. We used this idea in our music video, making the band and the singer meet at the end of the video. We developed upon the narrative/performance idea and also added flashback shots to create a fuller storyline that was easy to follow and ran along side the lyrics of the song.

    

     We also used the convention of emotive close ups of the artist that we saw in Evanescence's 'My Immortal' and Ellie Goulding's 'Starry Eyed' and 'The Writer'. We felt that these shots allowed the artist to interact with the audience and emote to fit with the lyrics of the song. In our own video we used a range of shots but we shot a lot of close ups based on this idea. We liked that there was a large range of camera shots and angles with the 'My Immortal' video, including extremes. Because of the slow pace of the video a wider range of shots were used to give variety to the video. The song we used for our video was slightly faster so we didn't feel we needed to use such a great variety, in fact this may have made the video look messy. We did, however, use a few different shots and angles such as long shots, mid shots and close ups. We used high and straight angles shots for most of the video. These are the main conventional shots and angles used in music videos. 'Jar of Hearts', for example, mainly uses these shots. A specific shot we were inspired by from the 'Jar of Hearts' video was the close up of the artists feet while walking, I have seen this before in a few videos and we used it in ours.    

 

     The mise scene varied in each video we watched, their didn't seem to be a particular convention that ran throughout the videos. However, in performance shots such as in 'My Immortal' and 'Sorrow' very limited lighting is used and there aren't many props apart from the instruments. The performance shots were focused more on the band and the pace of the music rather than what was around them. In other videos in which the only performance shots were of the artist or of just a pianist the mise en scene was more detailed, like in Birdy's 'Skinny Love' the setting was an old looking house, decorated with props such as paper, an antique chair and everything was covered in dust. In the performance shots of Avril Lavigne's 'When You're Gone' the scene is set up to look like an abandoned house, with a settee, a fireplace, bookshelves and ornaments. Because we were using both guitar and piano but not a full band we wanted something in between these. We decided to use the convention of quite a plain room but develop the idea by using chairs for the performers. This made sense for us because the pace of the song wasn't suitable for the band members to be jumping around like in 'My Immortal' and this way we could focus more on portraying emotion. 

 

      When researching for the digipak and advert I created a list of the conventions I saw used on professional products. This way I knew I could make my products more believable. I feel that my advert and digipak used the conventions of the genre quite well because of their imagery. I decided to use a picture of a skull and a skeleton. This fit in with a lot of the dark imagery I saw on real CD covers and adverts such as My Chemical Romance's 'The Black Parade' and Halestorm's 'A Strange Case Of ...'. I thought that the image of a skull would be quite striking for the front cover and then inside the digipak I used the image of a skeleton which clearly links but wouldn't work quite as well for a front cover image.

 

 

 

 

 

My digipak and advert are very closely linked and use the same colour scheme, text and images. Though I saw that a lot of artists simply used the album cover image for their advert (Florence and the Machine's 'Lungs' and Kings of Leon's 'Only by the Night') I developed this convention by using images that were linked and used in my digipak but that were not the front cover.

 

 

 

A lot of the fonts used on the albums and digipaks that I researched are quite bold and recognisable. My Chemical Romance's logo seems to suit the genre of music because the font is jagged and messy. Flyleaf's logo is simpler but uses a bold, distressed font to fir the rock genre.

 

 

I knew when choosing a images and a style for my digipak and advert I needed to mirror the style of music in every aesthetic, fonts included. I used www.1001freefonts.com to find a font that I liked and initially came up with four. I chose to use SF Phosphorus and Helvelticrap for both my digipak and advert. For the fonts, I used the convention because it made sense for my digipak and advert.

I wanted my colour scheme to be quite simple because a lot of the products I had researched used a black and white colour scheme and there was usually only two or three main colours used. I used mainly grey for the background, and then used black and white a highlight. I wanted some colour for the line that runs through my digipak and advert and for this I used red because it stands out. When finishing off my digipak and advert I looked at the official wording and logos used on real products so that I could use these and make my product look realistic. I used a wesbite name, the record company logo, a barcode and copyright information to acheive this.

Final Music Video

Band Shots

Music Video - Write Up 1

After a very busy week trying (and succeeding) to hand in the draft music video Mae and I decided it would best to get started on the real thing as soon as possible. With this in mind we planned to get together with Josh and James on Sunday afternoon. We chose to start filming at Mae's because she had a music room which would make the band shots more realistic and instruments we could use.

First we got changed and did make up and hair. The two guys wear waring pretty simple and casual clothing of jeans and tshirt, Josh also wore a denim jacket to make his look more interesting. I wore a black lace dress, a leather jacket, black tights and doc martens. We thought that this suited the genre of music because it is slightly alternative. As for make up, the boys simply wore powder to make their skin look better under the camera. I wore foundation, powder and dramatic eyeliner.

We filmed mainly the band shots of us all playing together. These shots will come in at the end of the video. we also filmed some close ups and mid shots of Josh and James playing solo. These shots will be interspersed throughout the video. We also took some time to film 'interview' footage and 'behind the scenes' as we thought we could upload this to our twitter page to make it more interactive and realistic. We will start editing this footage soon and we will post a link to the twitter when we have.

We also took some band photos that we will upload to our blog and twitter as soon as possible. We did a mixture of serious and fun pictures based on pictures we had seen of bands of a similar genre. See pictures below.

Laura's DigiPak and Advert Draft

Risk Assessment

Cast:

Problem:
People that we want to use in video can't make it.
How to overcome this:
Make sure to have a few people as back ups that can step in.
How to prevent this:
Ask people that are reliable and we know well.

Equipment, Location and Mise En Scene:

Problem:
The camera breaks whilst filming.
How to overcome this:
Make sure all files on camera are backed up as soon as possible and make sure another camera is available to use.
How to prevent this:
Make sure camera is secure when using a tripod and use hand strap when using camera hand held.

Problem:
Costume could be unavailable
How to overcome this:
Make sure we have doubles or other costumes we can use and easily get hold of.
How to prevent this:
Make sure source is reliable and we have double checked that the costume will be available in plenty of time before filming.

Problem:
We can't use location we wanted to.
How to overcome this:
Make sure we have other ideas of where we could shoot all parts of the video.
How to prevent this:
Check with owners (if owned) of location.
Check site prior to filming.

Problem:
Lose or can't get hold of props.
How to overcome this:
Make sure to have an alternative idea.
Make sure to have spares or doubles of props.
How to prevent this:
Plan to use props that will be easy to get hold of and make sure we know where we are getting them from prior to filming.

Problem:
Wig doesn't look right.
How to overcome this:
Change the initial idea of what the main character will look like.
How to prevent this:
Try to get hold of a few different wigs from different places so we have a range to choose from.

Editing:

Problem:
Lose files when importing.
How to overcome this:
Make sure all files are backed up at least once.
How to prevent this:
Make sure computer has been used for this kind of work before and is reliable.

Problem:
There are gaps in video when edited to fit lyrics.
How to overcome this:
Make sure we have filmed more footage than we need so we can extend it if we need to.
How to prevent this:
Create a reliable storyboard and shot list to work from.

Theorists and Codes

Enigma Codes
We will use two enigma codes in our video. The first is the question 'where is she going?'
The main character is running but the audience won't know if she is running away from something or towards something or why until the end of the video.
The second enigma code is 'what does the letter say'/'what is her confession?'. This question actually won't be answered in the video, leaving the audience to wonder.

Todorov:
There are some links with Todorov and our video in that the character's actions (running away) result in a 'new normality' although you don't actually see why she's running away (the 'previous normality'.)

Representation

Where? The alleyway shots show that the character is running away from her problems and that she feels trapped. Some of our shots will be shot in a field and this will represent the character (main singer) being alone and deserted. The fact that she is in the outdoors shows that she is trying to break free from restrictions. In contrast to the field shots, when she is playing with the band she will look comfortable and happy, as if she is 'home'. The room they are in whilst playing represents the fact she is back in reality and not running anymore.
Who? The characters in the video will be the members of our fictional band. The character played by Laura will be representing a character and the emotions that are portrayed in the song. However, the other band members will not represent any characters; instead they are playing themselves as the only shots of them will be performance shots.
What? Our music video represents the feelings in the song. We interpreted these feelings as someone wanting to run away from a problem and finally be honest with themself. For example, the lyrics 'I've been running away, but I'm tired of being on the run' show her finally coming to terms with what she has to face.

How? We will show the character's feelings through a series of camera shots such as close ups on her facial expression to show her emotion. As well as close ups we will have a range of shots showing her body language. This will allow us to portray her as scared and lonely. As we said earlier we are representing her feelings through location. We will also represent the emotion through editing. We want the lighting to be quite dark and gloomy to mirror the lyrics in the song but in contrast to this we will use bright ground lights for the band shots.

Why? We chose the song 'Save Me' by Automatic Loveletter because it is not a well-known song which means not many people will have preconceived ideas about the song. Also, it does not have it’s own video so we can produce an original piece without being influenced by somebody else’s work.

Pitch Evaluation

The feedback we got after giving our pitch was mainly positive. Mrs Hammond thought that our idea was clear and well thought through. She thought that it was well organised because we have planned ahead. She liked that the mise en scene we want to use is simple to get hold of.
In our pitch we should have been clearer about the singer's costume because we didn't have a picture of the specific dress we will be using. The dress we did use in the pitch confused people slightly as they connected the dress with a wedding,making them think it was a love story. Therefore we will post a picture of the dress we will use on to the blog as soon as possible.

Animatic

Video Idea

Our video will be a mixture of narrative and performance and also includes flashbacks. The narrative is that a girl is running away from her problems and she wants to tell somebody something but she can't. She eventually finds her escape in music and this will be the climax of the video. We created this narrative because of the lyrics of the song we are using.
The lead character will first be seen running through an alley which then leads to a field. She will be singing and running through the field as this represents her trying to be free. In between these shots will be performance shots of a keyboard player and a guitarist. As well as this there will be flashbacks in black and white of her writing a letter and going to meet someone. She goes to give the person the letter but she gets scared and thats how she ends up where she is now.
At the very end of the video we see her running again and then from a shot inside the building where the performance is happening we see her come through the doors. We then realise that all the shots are linked and that she is the lead singer of the band.