Question 1

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

As a teenage 18 year old girl, prior to this project I felt I already had a good idea of the conventions applied to this industry. I have always had a key interest in the music industry which has been made extremely accessible to my generation through radio, downloads and music channels such as MTV. This naturally inspired me and the rest of my group to achieve a product which could match up to the standards and quality of the music videos and digipak that we have grown up with. Despite feeling I already knew this industry pretty well, our extensive research proved me wrong and showed me that I only had a surface view on the conventions of media products. In order to educate ourselves about the convention of media products we carried out a variety of research into existing products which can be seen in our earlier music video analysis, also using the theories put forward by Andrew Goodwin and John Stewart.

Andrew Goodwin:
The main points Goodwin identifies are that music videos are "based on repetition" of clips, scenes and images that create an expectation to establish a genre. He often shows that music videos often to do not have a closure or a definite ending. The video is designed to trigger enjoyment and pleasure to the audience which further promotes the song and video.

Andrew Goodwin argues that visuals are used to:

illustrateamplifyor contradict

There is also the theory forwarded by John Stewart which further extended the conventions that applied to our coursework who's theories state:

the importance of lighting used to highlight the "stars" faceoffers a personal relationship with performerreferences to other cultures, arts fashions

This information was crucial in giving us the direction in "what to do and what not to do" and influenced our video greatly as can be seen with our use of repetition and cliff hanger ending which is designed to trigger unique response from each individual viewer. We were able to identify five areas which were important to pay attention to, which were:

-Correlation between lyrics and visuals

-lighting

-Camera angels and shots

-Lip syncing

-Effects and editing

How this was achieved:

Correlation between lyrics and visuals:

The words of our song "Shadow Play" were extremely important in composing the main body of the story for our video. We interpreted the lyrics of the song as a group and created a mood board of what we felt the lyrics tried to convey. However as we learnt from our research, our video did not necessarily have to have a coherent story which applied one hundred percent to the lyrics all the time however there were certain words we felt were important in conveying the message of the song. For example:

"To the centre of the city where all the roads meet waiting for you"



In this clip we used a time lapse to show that time is passing around Harry, yet he feels uninvolved and ostracised from society. This was created by contrasting the busy scenery in comparision to the static position of Harry, giving the impression that he is somehow trapped emotionally.This is a general feeling that we felt from the song and we tried to convey this in the early stage of the video. As mentioned in the lyrics "waiting for you" we have tried to illustrate that it seems Harry is waiting for something or someone however we did not want to give away too much at the start but used techniques such as this to imply an uneasiness and unhappiness. This was the main chorus of the song. We used the same image every time this was heard, however as the video progressed we changed this image slightly showing the same position but with darker lighting and string attached to him which is also interputed with flashes of the clowns face to convey Harry's descent into madness and the way that the clown is taking over his life, building up the tension in the video in correlation to the music at this point. (see later clip below)




In this clip we physically conveyed the idea of Harry's nightmare of being trapped with the same technique of the world passing Harry, but also through the use of string which symbolizes the way he is bound to the clown and reinforced by the clown's face which was a "SAW" movie influence and the idea of vodoo.In just these two clips we have demonstrated the use of repetition, visuals correlation with lyrics and allusions to other art/media forms."

"In a room without a window in the corner I found truth"

The use of overlay in this shot was particularly effective in visually portraying the message of the words as it highlights the way the character is beginning to realise the hold that the clown is having over his life which is then extended in the next scene where he wakes up in a different world. The contrast in lighting between the two separate shots enabled us to create an outline of the clown which created a far more haunting image which conveyed the message that the clown terrorises his life in dream and reality. This used an effect which we also found to be sterotypically associated with our genre which "meets the expectation" of the viewer


Lighting:

This was another important area which required us to understand and comply to the convetions of lighting in music videos. Lighting proved extremely important in our video as it was key in presenting the gothic dark theme that we wanted to create.

Strobe light: Strobe light was used often in our video to convey the distortion of Harry's life, presenting it in a disjointed manner. This was something that again we found is typically used in music videos, for example The Prodigy and Chase and Status. With the strobe light effect we were able to create shadows, and it gave us the effect of juxtaposition between the two shots. This was followed by a close up of Harry's eyes twitching, used to convey his madness. We did use a strobe light on this which created a blue light effect and this intensified the movement giving it a bigger impact.

Lighting was increasingly important during the end sequence of our video to convey Harry's emotions. We used techniques that we had researched from other music videos in order to create a realistic and believable music video.(Click to enlarge)

Camera angles and shots

We used a variety of different shots throughout our video, the hand held shot proved particularly effective as it allowed us to create the idea that someone is following Harry (as seen in the first picture) and also gives a shaky distorted effect. futhermore reflecting the unstablity of Harry's life. In this second picture we also used a hand held camera technique to create a relationship between the viewer and Harry to enable them to see things from his perspective, while also creating empathy for his character.These technqiues are also used in other music videos, making our video seem professional and complying to the conventions:

Another way that we identified how music videos create a relationship with viewers is through lip syncing (as highlighted by Goodwin) and direct eye contact with the camera. We used both of these techniques in our video in order to create a professional video.

Lip Syncing:

Effects & Editing

When it came to editing the video we found that this was the 'make or break' of our video. In order to make the video LOOK correct, the editing had to fit in with the pace of the music. Our song had an array of paces which varied throughout. The slow parts were easier to edit as we used slower images and cross dissolve transitions. However the very fast part of our song proved a challenge. We therefore researched how other music videos overcome this obstacle and incorporated this into our video. Here are some examples of what we learnt about editing from other videos and how we mirrored this into ours.

Overlays

Overlays are an effect that we noticed are particuarly prominent in music videos of our chosen genre. We therefore incorporated this into our video to comply with the genre expectation. We used this at times where the music was slower to convey the haunting atmosphere of the clown.

In conclusion our we have developed media products to comply with the conventions which apply to the industry. This can be seen through the multiple use of examples we have shown during our coursework and arguably also in our audience feedback, as many commented on how professional our video look.

Question 2

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

Throughout our coursework as well as completing our main task we also had auxiliary tasks to complete designed to promote and enhance our main task (the music video). We decided to make a magazine advertisement and CD digi-pak as we felt this put our creative skills to best use and we also felt this would be an appropriate way to reach our target audience as the "indie rock" genre is very big in music magazines, having its own seperate magazines to cater for this audiences needs e.g NME, Kerrang!, Q Magazine etc.
This meant that we needed to create a strong house theme/brand throughout all three pieces to compliment each other and to cross promote created using similar or the same art work. Before these tasks were carried out we put extensive research into the way musicians and record companies achieve this with existing products:

Qu2part2

View more presentations from mpainter1.

As our genre is "Indie Rock" it is not only important that our products worked well together but also fitted into the genre. We were able to understand how to create a product which would please our target audience through research, which influenced the whole look . As The Killers are already a favourite band of mine I felt quite confident in knowing how I felt the task should look in correlation to the video.

In connection to the lyrics and tone of our song we decided on a dark, ominous theme for all three products which we feel corresponded visually to the lyrics of the song. Also from our research we decided that the strongest way to create a brand is using the same imagry from the video in the two auxiliary products to make this effective. But how was this achieved?

Lighting, images and iconograpghy

We decided that in reaction to the lyrics and tone of the song we would use a dark ominous look to our video, with a horror film element. To achieve this we used certain techniques to make our product appear foreboding and “creepy”. We used horror film iconography and devices which gave an effective look to our product.

This was a theme that we used across all three platforms which made it clear the three belonged together.

(Click to enlarge)

(text from poster)

-The clown was a repetitive image throughout our video and was one of its main features as it was crucial to the main story line. This made it impossible not to feature the clown the in auxiliary task. We used an ordinary picture of the clown which was not particularly scary to make subtle hints to the view of the products which therefore cross promote.
-technique and format from the video from the overlay seen in this scene. This was an extremely powerful image in the video as it conveyed the extent to how the clown is begging to take over his life. We used this principle in the auxiliary task, making a connection to our video to convey the same message. We repeated the image of the clown to add further impact and also to extend the idea of Harry’s torment which is offset by his neutral face expression.
-We used the same image from this scene of the video and altered the brightness to convey the darkness of the rest of the video. We used this image as we felt it did not give away too much as Harry has no facial expression. His eyes engage directly with the camera which makes the image engaging and also creates a haunting image simply, which is enhanced from the overlay of the clown. This was effective as it was subtle and adds interest and intrigue to those who have not seen the video and attracts attention to the product.
-Similar angles/poses used

Features e.g Font,layout

(Click to enlarge)

So how effective was this?

Well to really measure the effectiveness of this we gave a questionnaire (see link) to our target audience about what they liked and did not like about our three tasks and how well they felt they worked together as a whole. We also incorporated this into our audience feedback video during question three.

Overall it would seem we were fairly successful in creating an effective brand across all three products as we had very positive feedback from our target audience in both the questionnaire and audience feedback video. Most people felt

• "There is a strong link between all three products" constructed through "the repetition of themes and the clown"
• The lighting in the ancillary tasks "mirrored the atmosphere of the video"
• "It was clear that the three products belong together"
• The products are "intresting" and "engaging"
• It is "professional" and "current" and "fits well into the genre"
  
  

Question 3

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Audience feedback has been crucial to our coursework not only during the evaluation process but also during the development of our video and ancillary tasks. After we had created our rough cut, as a class we previewed each others work in the classroom. As the video was shown, pieces of paper were given out to obtain feedback on what people thought of the rough cut such as what they liked and what they did not like. Click here to view comments people made. This information was a key in influence during the next stages of our development as we responded to this feedback making changes to improve our video. This was important because it enabled us to polish our work and make appropriate alterations according to our target audience (young people). So what did we learn at this stage from audience feedback?

-The editing matched the pace of the music well and that there was a good distinct change between the beginning and where the music builds in the instrumental.
-Angry scene (instrumental) was effective and lighting and pace of editing helped achieve this
-The alleyway however did not match editing and most people felt the pace of cuts needed to be faster
-Some shots, such as the strings coming down, were too dark
-There were extra clips in the switch between shadows and no shadows (chorus)
-The pace of editing in the forest could be slowed down
-The clip with lip-singing was too long and needed cuts between
-overall people really liked the idea and concept

For our final cut we decided to make a video of our audience feedback as a group. We tried to make this look like an MTV style interview video. In order to do this we used the music of our song and added small details such as names etc. We used the concept of point evidence comment, so each time someone has made a point or commented, we used evidence from our video to prove this is valid. The people we used in our audience feedback are those who we feel are our target audience.

We obtained further feedback via Facebook. This was useful because it allowed us to show our video quickly to a number of people getting the responses collectively. Also it was a good way to target our market and as shown from our earlier research, Facebook is one of their main hobbies and intrests (see below):

Question 4

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

Transcript
Media technology has been vital in the construction, research and planning process of our A2 Media Coursework. During this time there has been a wide variety of digital technology available to us, which we have taken full advantage of. This has been crucial in every stage of our work enabling us to create a professional looking project.
The Internet has played a key part in the research stages of our project and has provided us with an infinite supply of existing music videos and digipak helping us to understand the conventions of these products. This ensured that we were able to create a realistic and professional; product which complied with the industry’s conventions. Not only this but the internet has also helped us to research our target audience, UK tribes.com was especially helpful in allowing us access to our target audience, giving us and insight and in-depth knowledge of the music they like, their interests and hobbies. This allowed us to target our media products correctly. This information has been indispensible to our coursework and arguably would not have been so detailed without the use of the Internet.
We used a Sony DCR-HC62 camera to film our video. The high quality camera enabled us to achieve the crisp look we wanted and needed for our video to look professional. The camera also allowed to use settings, which manipulated the footage and lighting to give a better effect. For example we used the spotlight setting, which concentrated the lighting giving the footage a more enhanced, defined look. When filming the melting candle we used the “smooth interval tape recording setting” which filmed the candle for one second every 2 minutes and we left this running for 3 days. This allowed us to speed up this footage whilst maintaining a smooth appearance and get an effective clip of the melting candle. We also experimented with different ways of holding the camera. We used a handheld effect to create the illusion of Harry being watched or followed we also used a point of view, handheld whip-pan to create a relationship between viewers and the characters by allowing them to see things from Harry’s perspective.
Once we had completed our filming we uploaded all of our footage into Final Cut via an Apple Mac computer. We imported our audio and locked it into place. We then captured all of our footage and it was ready for us to drag into our timeline and begin creating the final product. We dragged clips into the viewer and marked the sequence in and out to attain the part of the sequence we wanted. Our final video was gradually pieced together in this way and using Final Cut we were able to watch the material we had placed in the timeline as we went along. Final Cut also enabled us to use transitions in our video to give different effects. We used the “Fade In Fade Out” transition to give a smoother change between clips when needed, for example in places where the music slowed down. We used cross dissolves in order to convey Harry’s confusion as the blurred images effectively conveyed this feeling of disorientation as he awoke in a completely different place. Another important effect Final Cut enabled us to achieve was the overlay. Using the different video layers we could merge images and effectively portray the idea of Harry's nightmare as he is trying to fall asleep but cannot seem to escape the taunting images of the clown. This also enhanced the professionalism of our video, and as a technique used often in indie rock videos, meant we were conforming to the conventions of this genre. Using the modify toolbar in Final Cut we were also able to manipulate the speed of our footage. For example by increasing the speed of our time lapse section we were able to convert a 10 minute clip into one that only lasted 6 seconds effectively portraying Harry’s isolation and the sense of being trapped in his own mind as the whole world moves on around him.
During filming, we often took a digital camera on set to take pictures for our digipack and magazine advert. The camera we used was A Samsung ES60. This is a high-resolution digital camera, which produces quality pictures and is equipped with an array of features. These include the focus feature, which allowed us to blur the background and focus on two objects. This feature allowed us to produce the image of Harry and The puppet in the woods. The use of the camera contributed to our planning stages of the digipack and magazine advert. We also had the capability to change the scene of the camera to a scene called ‘Dawn’ which allowed us to produce the slightly lower contrasted images, such as the photograph of the alleyway. This camera also provided a spotlight setting, which allowed us to take focused, and more concentrated photos. This was very useful when attempting to take the image of Harry. The camera had a 2.5" 230K Intelligent LCD screen, which enabled a contrast and colour reproduction, allowing a wider and clearer image. The camera automatically detects environmental illumination and adjusts LCD brightness for optimal image viewing, which was extremely useful for the different environments in which our photos were taken.
Photoshop contributed majorly, with the construction of our digipack and magazine advert. The final image for the magazine advert consisted of two photographs of the clown, and one photograph of Harry. We used a faded eraser to eliminate the background of the images to ensure that the edges were not too harsh. We then adjusted the opacities and fills of the images to be able to combine the images, and produce a paranormal-like image. After adjusting the brightness slightly, we inserted a black background to draw attention to the faint image, creating a soft spotlight on Harry. With the use of the free transform tool, we were able to insert each image on a separate layer, to create the final one. The second image used, was of the puppet and Harry in the woods. We simply desaturated the image and used the history brush tool to recover the colour of the puppet. In a similar way, the third image was also desaturated. However, we used the lasso tool to enhance the colour of the alleyway. The back cover of the digipack consisted of two main images: the background and the weak image of Harry. The background image was simply reduced to opacity of 30%, and placed onto of a black background. The image used on the actual CD was a high quality photograph, and therefore, all that was needed to improve the image, was to desaturate it. We had to use the elliptical marquee tool to draw a circle around the image, and inverse the selection so that the image of harry, was shaped to blend onto the CD. we could then use the eraser tool, to erase the background and create a circular shape. Photoshop also gave us the opportunity to warp the text around the shape of the CD. Many images were manipulated in Photoshop to create the final products. Photoshop is equipped with a huge variety of fonts, which gave us a huge scope of font choices for the different texts used. We would not have been able to do this in most Microsoft programmes, as they do not provide the vital fonts we required for our digipack. This also contributed to planning and research, as we could ask our target audience on their views of the fonts.
Photoshop also helped to display the digipack, in a 3 dimensional format on Blogger. With the warp tool in Photoshop, I was able to warp the images onto a canvas and upload them as a JPEG in Blogger. Blogger is an interactive blog and been used for the display and planning of our products. Blogger is like an interactive folder, which contains labels, posts, links, and archives. Blogging allowed us to manage our time as it allowed us to see what needed to be completed, as well as to present/show all the research and construction of our work. Through Blogger, we were able to display our research of media conventions through the embedding of example music videos. This was a simple process, and simply involved copying and pasting embedding codes. We were also able to create collages in other programmes to post our planning and research onto Blogger. With the use of programmes such as SlideShare, we were able to upload presentations onto our Bloggers to display our planning and research into our target audience. Blogger, also allowed us to include hyperlinks in our work presentation, which was used as part of our research and planning stages.

During the evaluation stages of our project, media technology has been key in presenting ad assessing our work. We have used technology to answer this very question using the audio from the camera, which was then exported to stream clip, which extracted the audio only. This has allowed us to present our work in an engaging format using digital technology to our full advantage. We have also used the cameras to present our feedback evaluation question where we have tried to adopt an interview style commonly associated with the music industry. This was then edited and cut in final cut pro. We have also used the social networking site Facebook to get more audience feed back for our products. This was a useful platform for us to use as, as shown from our research this is one of the main ways our target audience consume their media

Final Cut

The Killers- Shadowplay from Megan Painter on Vimeo.

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