Wednesday, 21 April 2010
Thursday, 25 March 2010
A2 Advanced Portfolio - Evaluation
1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
The use of conventions started with our research as we did a lot of research into the drum and bass genre. We wanted to understand how the already established conventions of drum and bass can be applied to the mainstream music market. Looking into successful drum and bass artists such as Aphex Twin, Prodigy and Sub Focus, we were able to acknowledge what was apparent in all of them that enabled them to appeal to their target market. From the music videos themselves we saw consistent use of fast cuts and edits, also from their product design we saw a strong, definitive use of colour. After concluding our research we took these already established conventions and applied them to the construction of our product, this enabled us to gain a stronger appeal to our target audience of 18-35.
As well as using already established conventions from within the drum and bass market, we were also keen to develop the typical understanding of a music video. Music videos are a tool to express the story within or behind a music track and often express a strong and clear narrative. We wanted to express this idea of telling a story but aimed to extend it further to make it a more specific, symbolic portrayal of narrative. Thus through the use of Alec's script we were able to construct semiotic representations of class, society and age; this in itself gave the video an abstract look and theme.
Our music video also challenged typical conventions when constructing a music video. The typical music video relies relatively heavily on the interpretation of the song's lyrics; this is seen throughout the music industry from all manners of genres, from Indie to pop, Classic Rock to R&B, and even the more popular drum and bass artists such as the Prodigy. The track that we chose to use, however, has no lyrics at all; thus forcing us to derive meaning from something other than lyrics. So our initial ideas for the music video all stemmed from the title of the track 'Mainline'. This word resonates with words such as mainstream and control; the line in which everyone is made to follow. From this we were all able to get a foundation for what we wanted the content of our video to consist of and gave Alec a strong basis to construct a script. Though it would seem that having a track with no lyrics would be a con when constructing a music video, it was in actual fact one of the key reasons why we chose the track in the first place. The lack of lyrics allowed us more creative freedom in our interpretation of the song and didn't limit us to the clichéd conventions seen in other genre's music videos such as love songs.
We tried to include postmodern theme within our video not only in its narrative by using strong symbolic representations, but also in the video's overall look. We wanted to draw a comparison by juxtaposing the use of strong saturated colour alongside the grainy sepia look seen in early cinema. Through its postmodernity the video becomes very abstract and challenges typical conventions of story telling which matched our initial intentions.
2. How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
The combination of our music video with our ancillary products was an important issue with us. As we have such a specific theme in our video we wanted to keep the theme and style consistent throughout. We therefore constructed our ancillary texts after the completion of the video and actually used the video in order to create the CD/DVD cover as well as the magazine advert. For our ancillary texts we decided to actually take a still from our video to become the centre point in the design. Our covers and advert display a still of the villain within a circle, we then edited the image; turning it into solid shapes of black and white. The magazine advert we approached slightly differently, we wanted the ad to show a little bit more of the theme and ideas behind the video itself. To do this we took the same colour scheme from the video and applied it to our design. Also we tinted the edges of the advert to mimic the colour of the old style film. All this is done to great effect as the repetition of the same images raises enigma codes that provoke curiosity, along with the abstract use of colour.
3. What have you learnt from your audience feedback?
We learnt a lot from our audience feedback from very early on, at every stage of our production we were keen to get as much input from our perspective audience as possible. We posted our video on YouTube in its various stages in order to find what needed be tweaked or changed. The video on a whole was met with a lot of positive feedback, not only from friends and family but also by complete strangers. A few people however did make comment on a few aspects of our video, the most frequent of which was the choice of colour; we initially had used a strong sandy yellow colour but some people didn't feel that it fitted with the effect we wanted to achieve. Also due to the theme of the video being intentionally abstract and postmodern, some people struggled to understand it, however were still able to enjoy it merely on an aesthetic level.
A few people did comment on the choice of song, however we put this largely down to the fact that comparatively few people are fans of the drum and bass genre.
We also posted a series of polls and questionnaires on Facebook in order to help us construct our ancillary texts, helping us to make decisions such as colour choices.
The feedback we got was a key component in helping us reach the final cut of our video and was an influential tool throughout.
4. How did you use new media technologies in construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?
In terms of study, the Internet became a vital method of research. We researched a lot into the drum and bass genre and, through the use of YouTube, studied a series of video examples in order to gage the typical conventions of the genre. Also through this site we were able to research tutorials on how to make a snorricam which we were keen to include in our video.
Sites like MySpace gave us an idea of the presentation and advertising of a music artist and were able to research music magazines from their own homepages.
Our blogs were a central piece of technology throughout all the stages of our coursework. We were able to use them to aid research, help plan and assemble our ancillary texts and receive feedback to aid us in our evaluation.
Social networking sites such as Myspace and Facebook also helped at various stages of our coursework, Facebook especially. Through Facebook we were able to set up poles, post various stages of our video and immediately gain feedback.
We used other technologies to create our music video; we had access to two HD cameras, with a series of lenses such as a Fish Eye lense. We also had the use of two laptops with Final Cut Pro in order to compose and edit our video.
The use of conventions started with our research as we did a lot of research into the drum and bass genre. We wanted to understand how the already established conventions of drum and bass can be applied to the mainstream music market. Looking into successful drum and bass artists such as Aphex Twin, Prodigy and Sub Focus, we were able to acknowledge what was apparent in all of them that enabled them to appeal to their target market. From the music videos themselves we saw consistent use of fast cuts and edits, also from their product design we saw a strong, definitive use of colour. After concluding our research we took these already established conventions and applied them to the construction of our product, this enabled us to gain a stronger appeal to our target audience of 18-35.
As well as using already established conventions from within the drum and bass market, we were also keen to develop the typical understanding of a music video. Music videos are a tool to express the story within or behind a music track and often express a strong and clear narrative. We wanted to express this idea of telling a story but aimed to extend it further to make it a more specific, symbolic portrayal of narrative. Thus through the use of Alec's script we were able to construct semiotic representations of class, society and age; this in itself gave the video an abstract look and theme.
Our music video also challenged typical conventions when constructing a music video. The typical music video relies relatively heavily on the interpretation of the song's lyrics; this is seen throughout the music industry from all manners of genres, from Indie to pop, Classic Rock to R&B, and even the more popular drum and bass artists such as the Prodigy. The track that we chose to use, however, has no lyrics at all; thus forcing us to derive meaning from something other than lyrics. So our initial ideas for the music video all stemmed from the title of the track 'Mainline'. This word resonates with words such as mainstream and control; the line in which everyone is made to follow. From this we were all able to get a foundation for what we wanted the content of our video to consist of and gave Alec a strong basis to construct a script. Though it would seem that having a track with no lyrics would be a con when constructing a music video, it was in actual fact one of the key reasons why we chose the track in the first place. The lack of lyrics allowed us more creative freedom in our interpretation of the song and didn't limit us to the clichéd conventions seen in other genre's music videos such as love songs.
We tried to include postmodern theme within our video not only in its narrative by using strong symbolic representations, but also in the video's overall look. We wanted to draw a comparison by juxtaposing the use of strong saturated colour alongside the grainy sepia look seen in early cinema. Through its postmodernity the video becomes very abstract and challenges typical conventions of story telling which matched our initial intentions.
2. How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
The combination of our music video with our ancillary products was an important issue with us. As we have such a specific theme in our video we wanted to keep the theme and style consistent throughout. We therefore constructed our ancillary texts after the completion of the video and actually used the video in order to create the CD/DVD cover as well as the magazine advert. For our ancillary texts we decided to actually take a still from our video to become the centre point in the design. Our covers and advert display a still of the villain within a circle, we then edited the image; turning it into solid shapes of black and white. The magazine advert we approached slightly differently, we wanted the ad to show a little bit more of the theme and ideas behind the video itself. To do this we took the same colour scheme from the video and applied it to our design. Also we tinted the edges of the advert to mimic the colour of the old style film. All this is done to great effect as the repetition of the same images raises enigma codes that provoke curiosity, along with the abstract use of colour.
3. What have you learnt from your audience feedback?
We learnt a lot from our audience feedback from very early on, at every stage of our production we were keen to get as much input from our perspective audience as possible. We posted our video on YouTube in its various stages in order to find what needed be tweaked or changed. The video on a whole was met with a lot of positive feedback, not only from friends and family but also by complete strangers. A few people however did make comment on a few aspects of our video, the most frequent of which was the choice of colour; we initially had used a strong sandy yellow colour but some people didn't feel that it fitted with the effect we wanted to achieve. Also due to the theme of the video being intentionally abstract and postmodern, some people struggled to understand it, however were still able to enjoy it merely on an aesthetic level.
A few people did comment on the choice of song, however we put this largely down to the fact that comparatively few people are fans of the drum and bass genre.
We also posted a series of polls and questionnaires on Facebook in order to help us construct our ancillary texts, helping us to make decisions such as colour choices.
The feedback we got was a key component in helping us reach the final cut of our video and was an influential tool throughout.
4. How did you use new media technologies in construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?
In terms of study, the Internet became a vital method of research. We researched a lot into the drum and bass genre and, through the use of YouTube, studied a series of video examples in order to gage the typical conventions of the genre. Also through this site we were able to research tutorials on how to make a snorricam which we were keen to include in our video.
Sites like MySpace gave us an idea of the presentation and advertising of a music artist and were able to research music magazines from their own homepages.
Our blogs were a central piece of technology throughout all the stages of our coursework. We were able to use them to aid research, help plan and assemble our ancillary texts and receive feedback to aid us in our evaluation.
Social networking sites such as Myspace and Facebook also helped at various stages of our coursework, Facebook especially. Through Facebook we were able to set up poles, post various stages of our video and immediately gain feedback.
We used other technologies to create our music video; we had access to two HD cameras, with a series of lenses such as a Fish Eye lense. We also had the use of two laptops with Final Cut Pro in order to compose and edit our video.
Wednesday, 24 March 2010
A2 Advanced Portfolio - DVD and Magazine Ad
The next stage of our ancillary task was to create a DVD cover to go along with the CD, to be sold as a digipack. Also we had to create a mock up of a magazine advert for the Digipack.
When faced with the task of creating a DVD we immediately drew ideas from the CD cover in order to make the look and theme consistent throughout all our products. We decided to use the same image seen on the CD cover along with using the same font style and use of circles. Here is the net view of the DVD cover:
When faced with the task of creating a DVD we immediately drew ideas from the CD cover in order to make the look and theme consistent throughout all our products. We decided to use the same image seen on the CD cover along with using the same font style and use of circles. Here is the net view of the DVD cover:
This reinforces the enigma codes raised from the CD cover and makes a strong, consistent product.
Last we tackled the magazine advert, we were keen to keep the same sort of style for the same reasons we kept the style of the DVD consistent to the CD. But before this we looked into the style of magazine adverts it order to understand their look and the amount of information posted on them.
Here are a few examples I looked at as part of my research:
Last we tackled the magazine advert, we were keen to keep the same sort of style for the same reasons we kept the style of the DVD consistent to the CD. But before this we looked into the style of magazine adverts it order to understand their look and the amount of information posted on them.
Here are a few examples I looked at as part of my research:
Both examples display very little information regarding to the product itself and is focused more so on an image or style of the advert. With this in mind we began constructing our advert, using similar methods. We drew inspiration from the other CD covers that we had previously researched, Sub Focus became a key influence when designing the Magazine Ad, their use of colour tied very well with our concept of the music video, also the we incorporated the idea of circular imagery into our design as well. We made sure that each aspect of the design derived from our music video, the use of colour from the highly colourised sequences, the sepia tone on the edge of our design from our early cinema influence, and the use of the Villain blacked out on the front. All of this was done in order to raise the interest and curiosity of the viewer; raising questions to its meaning and the content of the video.
After looking at other examples of magazine adverts we decided to give as little information as possible to in keep with the idea of mystery and to provoke curiosity. We designed this Ad to be featured in music magazines such as ATM, Lexicon, Kmag and Rinse Magazine, all of which are drum and bass magazines.
Wednesday, 17 March 2010
A2 Advanced Portfolio - CD Cover
In order to develop our CD/DVD cover for our digipack, it was first important to ensure that we had some strong artistic influences from the world of the drum and bass genre. We looked into a series of drum and bass producers, most of which given to us by Ben who is the only one who is an avid fan of drum and bass music.
Prodigy Album Covers:
Sub Focus Album Cover:
After looking at these album covers we took the styles and designs and tried to apply them to the planning of our music video; expressing the idea of the title 'Mainline'.
These are the very first ideas that Ben came up with very early on, each relates and expresses the ideas conjured by the title of the track.
After this, we put the ancillary task to one side in order to focus more on the planning, research and construction of the music video. After its completion we once again turned our focus back to the ancillary tasks and were able to create much stronger priducts.
We we able to look at the music video and develop its postmodern theme by using it to construct the CD, DVD and Magazine Ad in keeping with the script, stlye and more importantly our artistic intention.
Booklet - Outside
The design actually derives from the music video itself, strengthening the relation and the relevance to the music video thus making it intertextual. The way the image of the villain is edited creates a strong marketing tool as it raises a series of enigma codes that makes the perspective buyer question the content of the video and of the relevance of the man on the cover. The left side of the image is the back cover of the inner booklet.
Booklet - Inside
Back Cover
Prodigy Album Covers:
Sub Focus Album Cover:
After looking at these album covers we took the styles and designs and tried to apply them to the planning of our music video; expressing the idea of the title 'Mainline'.
These are the very first ideas that Ben came up with very early on, each relates and expresses the ideas conjured by the title of the track.
After this, we put the ancillary task to one side in order to focus more on the planning, research and construction of the music video. After its completion we once again turned our focus back to the ancillary tasks and were able to create much stronger priducts.
We we able to look at the music video and develop its postmodern theme by using it to construct the CD, DVD and Magazine Ad in keeping with the script, stlye and more importantly our artistic intention.
Booklet - Outside
The design actually derives from the music video itself, strengthening the relation and the relevance to the music video thus making it intertextual. The way the image of the villain is edited creates a strong marketing tool as it raises a series of enigma codes that makes the perspective buyer question the content of the video and of the relevance of the man on the cover. The left side of the image is the back cover of the inner booklet.
Booklet - Inside
Back Cover
Monday, 15 March 2010
A2 Advanced Portfolio - Music Video Final Cut
On Friday, after a good couple of weeks editing, we finally completed the final cut of our music video. Through the use of effects we were able to enhance the visual symbolism in keeping with Alec's original script, and though changing it slightly were able to keep to its postmodernistic theme and still contain elements of my original storyboard. As a group we are pleased with the end result and truly feel that even though we had a lot of issues to overcome, we worked hard and produced what we believe to be a good music video.
Our final cut of our video has heavily influenced the production of both our CD and DVD along with our magazine advert for the digipak. The strong abstract and postmodern theme present in our music video gave us a strong starting point when constructing the ancillary tasks. The relation between these tasks and the video is a very strong one as they both derive meaning form one another and were constructed with the video strongly in mind.
Our final cut of our video has heavily influenced the production of both our CD and DVD along with our magazine advert for the digipak. The strong abstract and postmodern theme present in our music video gave us a strong starting point when constructing the ancillary tasks. The relation between these tasks and the video is a very strong one as they both derive meaning form one another and were constructed with the video strongly in mind.
Tuesday, 9 March 2010
A2 Advanced Portfolio - Music Video Rough Cut
After filming, our next task was to begin the long process of editing. As myself and Ben shot about half video each on the day, Alec and Jack took charge of the editing and began to piece the story together, and slowly we saw our first rough cut take shape. (To view the video at its correct size open in a new window by double clicking the video)
As it is a rough cut we are yet to fit the footage with the music, this was merely a chance for us to see how the video would look after all the footage was brought together. It also allowed us to sample different effects and to explore the use of flashing subliminal images, and though obviously incomplete, is a good indicator with regards to the postmodernist style and feel of the overall video.
As it is a rough cut we are yet to fit the footage with the music, this was merely a chance for us to see how the video would look after all the footage was brought together. It also allowed us to sample different effects and to explore the use of flashing subliminal images, and though obviously incomplete, is a good indicator with regards to the postmodernist style and feel of the overall video.
Tuesday, 2 March 2010
A2 Advanced Portfolio - Stage one of filming
Filming for our music video has definitely been an experience. After I completed my section of the storyboard (over 100 frames or so) we were faced with the daunting prospect of how we were going to tackle this mammoth task. We first started with the basics, organisation.
Using my contacts at a local theatre I was able to gain access to their consume store and was permitted to borrow a selection of items, including a tail coat and top hat for the villain, and briefcases for each of the henchmen. In addition Ben was able to attain three bowler hats and some chalk. The next task was to gather all the equipment available to us, both Ben and Alec were in possession of HD digital camcorders, tripods and a monopod. On top of this we also had access to an advanced editing software. The decision to use our own equipment has given us more flexibility for how and when we can shoot and edit. The main reason for doing this was because we wanted to create the best music video we could, and we believed that the flexibility of using our own equipment and the high quality of the software would enable us to do so.
We were originally planning to shoot in Kings Lynn but after discussions with regards to transport we decided on Downham Market instead which proved to be just as good, if not better and decided to shoot all day on the Tuesday and Friday of our half term. The only thing that remained to sort out was the cast. Initially the cast needed to consist of 7 members; The Villain, three Henchmen and three Youths. However due to the fact that we were filming on two whole days of the half term holidays, we struggled to get people to volunteer for the whole two day shoot, so we had to compromise and use what we had available to us. So we decided that Jack and Alec would be in the video and double up as bout a Youth and a Henchman. I then managed to get my friend Matthew in to play the role of the villain, as he was a drama student and was more than happy to do so. Another friend of ours was lined up to play the third Henchmen but backed out at the last minute, but we did manage to get our friend Brendon to take his place as a youth and then Ben would have to play the third Henchmen.
Using my contacts at a local theatre I was able to gain access to their consume store and was permitted to borrow a selection of items, including a tail coat and top hat for the villain, and briefcases for each of the henchmen. In addition Ben was able to attain three bowler hats and some chalk. The next task was to gather all the equipment available to us, both Ben and Alec were in possession of HD digital camcorders, tripods and a monopod. On top of this we also had access to an advanced editing software. The decision to use our own equipment has given us more flexibility for how and when we can shoot and edit. The main reason for doing this was because we wanted to create the best music video we could, and we believed that the flexibility of using our own equipment and the high quality of the software would enable us to do so.
We were originally planning to shoot in Kings Lynn but after discussions with regards to transport we decided on Downham Market instead which proved to be just as good, if not better and decided to shoot all day on the Tuesday and Friday of our half term. The only thing that remained to sort out was the cast. Initially the cast needed to consist of 7 members; The Villain, three Henchmen and three Youths. However due to the fact that we were filming on two whole days of the half term holidays, we struggled to get people to volunteer for the whole two day shoot, so we had to compromise and use what we had available to us. So we decided that Jack and Alec would be in the video and double up as bout a Youth and a Henchman. I then managed to get my friend Matthew in to play the role of the villain, as he was a drama student and was more than happy to do so. Another friend of ours was lined up to play the third Henchmen but backed out at the last minute, but we did manage to get our friend Brendon to take his place as a youth and then Ben would have to play the third Henchmen.
We filmed on both the planned days and shot a fair amount of what we needed, though not as much as we'd have liked. Due to this we decided to spend another day filming on the following Tuesday.
This is a short clip of what we filmed on the first Tuesday and Friday:
The following Tuesday didn't quite go according to plan, on Tuesday morning Alec got a phone call from Jack saying that he couldn't make it as he was very ill, also our friend playing the third youth could not be with us for the whole day. After hearing this Ben, Alec and I all got together to discuss our next move, none of us wanted to waste the day as we had everything ready and prepared for our shoot. Therefore Alec suggested that we continue to shoot but just simply what we were trying to do, and just focus on the main theme of Alec's script. This, though changing the script slightly, still displayed the same initial intention of our video and still allowed us to explore the idea of the controlling mainline or mainstream and to do so through the use of postmodern techniques. The main changes that were made were instead of three Henchmen and three Youths, we would just have a single Henchman and just one Youth. Therefore the Villain (still played by Matthew) would chase the Youth (played by Alec) in order to put him back under his control. When failing to do so he calls for the aid of his Henchman (Ben) to help trap the Youth.
This idea, though at the time seeming a little radical, was ultimately a good decision. My previous storyboards became a springboard for us to work from and we managed to tackle the shooting with double the energy and enthusiasm than we had previously (plus it was no where near as cold as it was the previous week!). This process really got our minds working quickly and allowed to also improvise and bounce of each other's creative ideas, turning out some good results.
We shot our opening scene at college and then moved on to shoot the rest around Downham. Shooting around a town like Downham was a lot of fun and became very interesting to see the public's reaction and interest in what we were doing. Before shooting however we made sure we knew the specific regulations with regards to shooting in public, and were told by the authorities that it was fine as long as we didn't zoom in or focus on any member of the public without their written permission. We managed to achieve a lot in that single day taking back with us more footage than the first two days combined, including a highly choreographed and planned out car chase which we were all very proud of.
We shot our opening scene at college and then moved on to shoot the rest around Downham. Shooting around a town like Downham was a lot of fun and became very interesting to see the public's reaction and interest in what we were doing. Before shooting however we made sure we knew the specific regulations with regards to shooting in public, and were told by the authorities that it was fine as long as we didn't zoom in or focus on any member of the public without their written permission. We managed to achieve a lot in that single day taking back with us more footage than the first two days combined, including a highly choreographed and planned out car chase which we were all very proud of.
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