Friday, 5 March 2010
Friday, 5 February 2010
Saturday, 23 January 2010
Wednesday, 20 January 2010
Tuesday, 19 January 2010
Evaluation: How did you use new media technologies in the construction of research, planning and evaluation?
New Media technology was vital during all stages of production. Without it the task would have been near impossible.
Due to our group’s interest in the indie music, we decided to use a song with that genre in mind. We eventually decided to use a Maccabees track but with problems relating to copyright we needed to get permission. This is where new media technology was useful. We researched online whom we would need to contact (the head of technology for the band) and then emailed them. This was an easy method and we received a fast response. Whereas if we couldn’t email we would have had to write to them, and we wouldn’t have known who would be best to contact and so no response would have been guaranteed.
All of our work is documented via blog, which is more efficient as there is a great deal of increased storage. As proof of permission from the Maccabees I printscreeened the email, saved it as a picture and uploaded it onto my blog.
Now that that the permission was sorted we needed to research other Indie music videos to find out the common conventions of this genre. As Indie music has a niche market it was near impossible to conduct this research via television music channels. This is because due to it not being a common genre, music videos from the likes of Arctic Monkeys and The Mystery Jets are rarely if ever seen on music channels other than that of the NME music channel which is not a terrestrial channel. And so I researched them online on YouTube. This was better than television as it allowed a degree of audience control. I was able to choose when and what videos I wanted to watch. It allowed me to access old as well as new songs under the indie genre such as ‘Leave Before the Lights Come On’ which is several years old and so would not have been on television channels such as NME.
We also used itunes to find The Maccabees archive of music to listen to brief snippets of all their tracks to find out which was we should use for our music video. We decided not to use YouTube for this so as not to be influenced by the music video itself, just the music. We eventually decided on the track 'One Hand Holding', which wasn't released by the band as a single. And so after this we watched several music videos by the Maccabees such as 'Can Give It' and 'No Kind Words' just to get a general feel of the way in which there videos are presented. From watching their videos we learnt that many of their videos are narrative based, and so as this was already something we were considering it encouraged us further to use this format.
One member of our team uploaded the song onto her 3G phone and set it to all members of our team via bluetooth so that we could listen t the lyrics and brainstorm ideas we could incorporate in our narrative music video.
I wrote up my findings and used screen grabs from the video making my analysis more understandable. I then uploaded to slideshare and posted onto my blog. Using Slideshare was better than copying and pasting onto my blog as the document remained the same and I didn’t have to re-adjust the images. Uploading it onto my blog allowed me to share my findings with members of my group.
But new media technology was also important in the construction of our video. We needed photos as props/mis-en-scene in the video. We took photos on a 3G mobile phone and bluetoothed them to a computer to print them off. This method was quick, easy and meant that we could take photos as soon as we had finished other tasks. If we had not been able to do this then we would have had to make sure we brought all the correct cables to connect to the computer.
When we finished our video we decided to put it on YouTube. First we converted it to quicktime and then embedded it onto YouTube. This allowed globalisation as we could receive feedback from anyone, and so gained a wider audience than if we had held a screening for it. One girl commented that she’d love “British boys in her cupboard”. We also posted it as a response to a popular Maccabees track called 'Toothpaste Kisses' which enabled us to reach our target audience, that being young adults and Maccabees fans. By putting it onto YouTube we were able to receive constructive criticism to help us improve our music video. For example, some commented on the quality of the video, so we decided to convert it again onto quicktime but at full quality, this was a longer process but improved the quality of the video. Online feedback was more effective as only people who wanted to give feedback did, and so it was a better quality of feedback rather than if for example we had held a screening and handed out questionnaires, as from previous experience it shows that occasionally people are inclined to response somewhat halfheartedly to speed up the questioning process.
Our magazine advert was made through a website called Pinik, which helps to edit photographs. This was more efficient than using other software as we wanted a polaroid image effect on some of the images within the advert. The digipak was created through a piece of software Paintware Pro 8, this was useful as we wanted to use a 'sticky tape' effect which gave the impression of images being stuck on which related to parts of the music video. This may have been possible using other software but we considered this piece of software to be more effective.
Evaluation: In what ways does your media product use, develop and challenge forms and conventions of real media text products?
Music Video
Music videos under the indie genre generally fall under three categories: performance based, narrative with elements of performance, and narrative based. As our music video is narrative based it could be considered to conform to conventions associated with indie music. Bands such as Arctic Monkeys, in present times are most commonly known for having narrative based videos. One that we researched before making our music video was 'Leave Before the Lights Come On'. The Arctic Monkeys do not feature in this video. This is similar to our video as The Maccabees do not appear in any form within our video, other than through a poster on the wall. Narrative based videos are least common of the three categories and so we are in a sense developing the convention. Michael Gondry's music video 'Fell in Love With A Girl' by the indie-rock band The White Stripes is also a purely narrative/concept based video, not featuring a band, and so although i did not analyse this video in depth, by watching it i was (to an extent)
inspired by it.
inspired by it.
The narrative to our video initially appears to be a typical boy-girl love story. This conforms to ideas and themes within indie music as commonly the story-line is based on a love story with a problem and a happy resolution at the end. They generally incorporate Todorov's theory of there being five stages of a narrative. However, our music video develops this idea as we corrupt it by having the five stages being beneficial to the girl, but not an ordinary or even moral outcome. We also challenged the idea of a perfect love story to reveal themes of obsession and trying to capture ideal 'perfection'. We incorporated the post modernist view of challenging stereotypes. But, even with this we were 'inspired' to an extent by The Mystery Jets challenging the convention of a love story with their music video 'Half In Love With Elizabeth'. In their music video the male protagonist has a secret desire to be with the Queen Elizabeth, but still cares for his girlfriend. In our music video the girl challenges stereotypes by her child-like and obsessive nature as well as her actions, such as locking the boys in her wardrobe.
We challenged conventions with our cutting rhythm in relation to indie music but not music videos in general. Narrative indie music videos often appear almost film-like and so the cutting pace does not normally relate to the music. 'Leave Before the Lights Come On' by Arctic Monkeys is an example of this. However our music video cuts in relation to the music and so we challenge conventions of narrative indie music videos, but in the wider context narrative videos of other genres often do relate to the pace of the music such as pop artist Gwen Stefani's 'Cool'.
We also challenged conventions through the use of costume. Males' attire in indie music videos stereotypically appear somewhat disheveled and unkept, with examples being bands such as Kings of Leon, and The Kaiser Chiefs. However we decided to dress our male protagonist in shirts and scarfs to appear more grown up to highlight the great contrast between his mature state and her childish nature. But we also did it to further stress his changing appearance as the relationship progresses.
We decided to incorporate aspects of Goodwin's theory by having a clear relationship between the lyrics and the visuals. During the music video the dolls eyes are shown in a close up whilst the music goes "the eyes, the eyes".
Magazine Advert
Our magazine advert generally conformed to conventions associated with indie advertisements. The font used for the band name was easy to read and situated at the top of the advert. This is common in not only adverts promoting Indie music but all types, The Killers advert for there live greatest hits album also does this as well as Jamie Cullum's 'The Pursuit' album. The album title being situated under the band name is also common, as shown in The Killers live greatest hits album. The idea of 'selling the artist' can be quite common within the indie genre with bands such as Razorlight doing so in the past, but this appears to be more bands under the sub-genre pop-rock. Many Indie bands do not have images of themselves on their adverts and so by us having two, small images on our advert of the band, but not being the main images we are in a sense developing the convention.
Digipak
Again, similarly to magazine adverts, digipaks either 'sell' the artist/band or don't by having obscure images sometimes relating to the album, but often not. Bands such as Twisted Wheel and the Verve's 'Urban Hymns' have images of themselves on their album. Our digipak does not 'sell' the artist as there are no images of the band on it. The back panel consists of just the track list. This highlights the importance of the music as there are no distractions just the name of the tracks. This is similar to Jack Penate's album 'Matinee' which although he appears on the digipak, he does not appear on the back where the track list is, there is no other distracting information on the back, showing that it is just about the music. Many bands under the indie genre don't have images of themselves on their digipaks/CD covers and so we are conforming to conventions of indie music. Bands such as Friendly Fires with there album of the same name and Foal's 'Antidotes'.
Thursday, 14 January 2010
Final Digipak (6 sides)
After the first draft of our digipak we decided to use a 6 sided format instead of a 4 sided one.
Sunday, 10 January 2010
Digipak front, back and inside images
We decided to use a panoramic image for our front and back of our digipak. The right hand side (of the bottom image) will be the front and will include the name of the band 'The Maccabees' as well as the album name 'Wall of Arms' in red. The back will include a white poster that appears to be stuck on the wall with the titles of the tracks included on the album.
The first image will be the inside of the digipak. The left hand side will consist of the lyrics of the chorus of a Maccabees song, whilst the right of the image is where the cd would be positioned.
The first image will be the inside of the digipak. The left hand side will consist of the lyrics of the chorus of a Maccabees song, whilst the right of the image is where the cd would be positioned.
Friday, 8 January 2010
Florence and the Machine Digipak Analysis
Check out this SlideShare Presentation:
Thursday, 7 January 2010
Final Magazine Advert
We decided to change the poster in the background from the original because we felt that it previously didn't look as professional as we had desired. As this poster is for the album, we didn't want it to appear to just be promoting the single and so we including two images of the band perfoming that a member of our team had personally taken. But, we wanted a degree of intertexuality within our auxillary pieces so audiences could recognise all three pieces relating to one another and so realise that they are all in designed to promote The Maccabees. And so we decided to incorporate our motif from the music video, (that being the doll) onto the poster as well as including the same actress, a member of our team.
Monday, 4 January 2010
Saturday, 2 January 2010
Tuesday, 24 November 2009
Wednesday, 11 November 2009
Tuesday, 10 November 2009
Teacher feedback
Check out this SlideShare Presentation:
Teacher feedback
After reading the feedback we decided to add titles at the beginning and end of our music video. Although, this is mostly common when videos are shown on music video channels rather than online, we still wanted to inform audiences of the name of the artist and the track.
Friday, 6 November 2009
The Killers Magazine Advert
The band name is written in light bulbs at the top of the advert. This is considered the trademark font of the band, it highlights their theatrical nature as it suggests glamour. Purple, often associated with royalty helps to reinforce this idea of glamour as it is the main colour used within the advert. The other colour used is gold, as this colour also has connotations of glamour, wealth and prestige it highlights the band's position within the rock industry. It suggests that they chose not to conform to ideas associated with the genre such as unglamorous, unkept appearances. The central image is the Royal Albert Hall, which further enforces this idea of glamour. It adds a setting to the advert as it is a live album from a performance at the Royal Albert Hall. But this contrasts with the cacti and palm trees, which give the advert an American setting. This is used to signify to audiences the band's Las Vegas roots.
Wednesday, 4 November 2009
Analysis of REM Magazine Advert
This advert is selling the album rather than the artist as they don't appear on it. This is typical of music under the mellow- rock genre. The background is black so as to highlight the names of the songs which are in various colours. "Out Now" stands out compared to the song names. It is in large letters at the bottom of the advert to highlight that they are selling the album rather than the artist which shows their serious attitude towards music. Although, the use of colour shows the bands more 'fun' and vibrant attitude to their music. The vital information is written in white, contrasting greatly with the black background. This clearly separates the more technical information from the song titles and so highlights its importance on the advert.
Analysis of Jamie Cullum Magazine Advert
The name of the artist and album is considerably bold. It is written in large black letters at the top of the advert, making the vital information stand out. Being a jazz musician, this formal- looking font shows his serious attitude towards his music. But, there are pieces cut out from the artist and album name, caused by the destruction of the piano. As jazz music tends to typically be mellow, this shows his alternative and creative and lively take on this genre.
The artist is in the central image of the advert, drawing attention to him, so the advert in effect is promoting the artist rather than just the music. The background is pale, fading down from pale blue/green to white. The poster is white where the artist is standing, drawing more attention to him, again rather than the vital information at the top.
The artist's costume is formal, serious. He is wearing a suit. Again, like before this shows his serious attitude therefore his dedication to his music. The top button of his shirt is undone, maybe to not make the artist appear as 'business-like' (as the rest of the poster suggests) to make it more relaxed like typical jazz music.
Other information is written below the artist's name and album name, in a smaller font. One item of information being a critic's view of the album. This is done to sell the album, to give it more credibility.
Sunday, 1 November 2009
Plan For One Hand Holding Video
Filmed from both boy and girl’s perspective- boy’s recollections shown later in fast cutting rhythm
Scene 1
• Begins in her room, with diegetic sound of laptop playing one line of chorus of the song.
• Doll leaning against computer.
• Girl shuts the laptop and non-diegetic soundtrack kicks in of main track,
• As girl gets ready to go out- grabs purse or coat etc,
• Walks out of there room
• Walking down the road, fast match cuts
Scene 2
• Lyrics kick in
• Girl sitting on park bench, reading a [dolls] book inside a magazine
• Sees a boy walking in her direction wearing the same 6
• Colour tee-shirt as the doll
• She looks at it then looks at him (hides doll)
• They catch each other’s eyes and smile… he trips over; she sees if he is ok
• They talk, exchange numbers etc
• He calls her whilst she is holding the doll to arrange meeting up
When music changes Boy sees short shots of them out on dates:
• Sharing a meal,
• Sitting on swings,
• Having a picnic,
• Hugging
• Giving him a tee-shirt
• Saying I love you for the first
• Watching TV
Scene 3:
• Tells her he’s going to the toilet
• Walks up the stairs
• See’s her room – goes in to have a look
• See’s her room
• Camera shots of – doll books, doll on the bed,
• Shows a close up of boys face (shocked)
• Tracking shot of photographs of her and the doll
FLASHBACKS:
• Her putting the doll into the bag
• Close up of doll in the bag
• Close up of doll
• Spiking up his hair
• Giving him the t-shirt
• Feeding the ducks at the parks
• He remembers – shot of him looking worried
Scene 4:
• Cupboard shaking
• Boy opens the cupboard
• Looks in we see reaction in his face
• See 4 boys standing in the cupboard wearing red t-shirts like the doll
• Over the shoulder shot of a hand on the boys shoulder
• Medium shot of girls hand closing cupboard door
Scene 5:
• See the girl walking down the street as in before with doll in bag
• Returns to the park and starts to read a book in the same place as before
• Sees a young boy coming towards her
• Final shot close up of girls face smiling
Scene 1
• Begins in her room, with diegetic sound of laptop playing one line of chorus of the song.
• Doll leaning against computer.
• Girl shuts the laptop and non-diegetic soundtrack kicks in of main track,
• As girl gets ready to go out- grabs purse or coat etc,
• Walks out of there room
• Walking down the road, fast match cuts
Scene 2
• Lyrics kick in
• Girl sitting on park bench, reading a [dolls] book inside a magazine
• Sees a boy walking in her direction wearing the same 6
• Colour tee-shirt as the doll
• She looks at it then looks at him (hides doll)
• They catch each other’s eyes and smile… he trips over; she sees if he is ok
• They talk, exchange numbers etc
• He calls her whilst she is holding the doll to arrange meeting up
When music changes Boy sees short shots of them out on dates:
• Sharing a meal,
• Sitting on swings,
• Having a picnic,
• Hugging
• Giving him a tee-shirt
• Saying I love you for the first
• Watching TV
Scene 3:
• Tells her he’s going to the toilet
• Walks up the stairs
• See’s her room – goes in to have a look
• See’s her room
• Camera shots of – doll books, doll on the bed,
• Shows a close up of boys face (shocked)
• Tracking shot of photographs of her and the doll
FLASHBACKS:
• Her putting the doll into the bag
• Close up of doll in the bag
• Close up of doll
• Spiking up his hair
• Giving him the t-shirt
• Feeding the ducks at the parks
• He remembers – shot of him looking worried
Scene 4:
• Cupboard shaking
• Boy opens the cupboard
• Looks in we see reaction in his face
• See 4 boys standing in the cupboard wearing red t-shirts like the doll
• Over the shoulder shot of a hand on the boys shoulder
• Medium shot of girls hand closing cupboard door
Scene 5:
• See the girl walking down the street as in before with doll in bag
• Returns to the park and starts to read a book in the same place as before
• Sees a young boy coming towards her
• Final shot close up of girls face smiling
Thursday, 29 October 2009
Lyrics For One Hand Holding
Oh love I was torn, I was torn
But I put those thoughts away love
Just a thought
Will the gods look kindly
Those thoughts are behind me
Oh why would you be led to suppose
Oh why would you be led by your nose
Why would you kill it, kill it, kill it before it dies
Why would you kill it, kill it, kill it before it dies
Those puffy eyes are no surprise
When there's a devil in the doorway
Heaven in the hallway
Say you'll still adore me
And I'm far out on an ocean
Trapped in a disaster
I'd say I still adore you
Oh why would you carry on a name
Oh why would you carry on the same
Why would you kill it, kill it, kill it before it dies
Why would you kill it, kill it, kill it before it dies
Those killer eyes don't look the same, the same, the same as they used to do
Not like the eyes, the eyes, the eyes that I make at you
I make at you, I make at you
It was torn up
But now it's alright, alright
It was torn up alright
But I put those thoughts away love
Just a thought
Will the gods look kindly
Those thoughts are behind me
Oh why would you be led to suppose
Oh why would you be led by your nose
Why would you kill it, kill it, kill it before it dies
Why would you kill it, kill it, kill it before it dies
Those puffy eyes are no surprise
When there's a devil in the doorway
Heaven in the hallway
Say you'll still adore me
And I'm far out on an ocean
Trapped in a disaster
I'd say I still adore you
Oh why would you carry on a name
Oh why would you carry on the same
Why would you kill it, kill it, kill it before it dies
Why would you kill it, kill it, kill it before it dies
Those killer eyes don't look the same, the same, the same as they used to do
Not like the eyes, the eyes, the eyes that I make at you
I make at you, I make at you
It was torn up
But now it's alright, alright
It was torn up alright
Wednesday, 14 October 2009
Costumes
Girl protagonist- we decided the girl's clothing should be reasonably fashionable but young looking. We did not want to highlight her obsessive/perculiar nature through her clothes, our aim was to make her appear to be an ordinary teenage girl, to be representative of young 'indie types'. But also, we did not want her clothes to stand out greatly so we used items like a plain white t-shirt and jeggings (so still appearing fashionable but not to take the focus away from the narrative). Also the use of the white top was to have an ironic element to the narrative. Symbolic of her 'purity' and 'innocence', audiences may find this somewhat humorous as she is far from innocent, it is a facade she creates.
Boy protagonist- we wanted our audiences to relate to our main boy protagonist so, we dressed him in typical indie attire. He wore skinny jeans (the current fashion of indie types). But, we also wanted him to appear different from the rest, to stand out amongst other boys, so we decided to dress him in shirts as well. This was also important to make clear to audiences how drastically the girl had changed his appearance. By the end of the music video the boy character will be dressed in a plain red t-shirt with spiked up hair, becoming a duplicate of the doll. The red t-shirt is worn as he discovers her secret obsession, and the danger he is about to face.
Boy protagonist- we wanted our audiences to relate to our main boy protagonist so, we dressed him in typical indie attire. He wore skinny jeans (the current fashion of indie types). But, we also wanted him to appear different from the rest, to stand out amongst other boys, so we decided to dress him in shirts as well. This was also important to make clear to audiences how drastically the girl had changed his appearance. By the end of the music video the boy character will be dressed in a plain red t-shirt with spiked up hair, becoming a duplicate of the doll. The red t-shirt is worn as he discovers her secret obsession, and the danger he is about to face.
Wednesday, 7 October 2009
Animatic
Animatic
We received generally quite positive feedback from our animatic when showing it to the class showed our animatic to the rest of our media class.
They identified our motif to be the doll and said it was consistently shown throughout the narrative.
But our other motif was not identified as it was in black and white (it was the colour red) We have decided to improve this in the actual video by choosing locations which clearly incorporate the colour red. We will also use red lighting in the final scenes
Our video was identified as a narrative video rather than a performance based one. They recognised that in doing this we were developing the “indie” genre, as performance based videos are stereotypically more common
Location and Filming schedule
The locations we are planning to use are:
Brockwell Park
Jo's house (Brixton)
Nimrod Road (leading to Furzedown)
We plan to film scenes on the following days:
30/09/09 (lesson time)- Filming both walking to park sequences on Nimrod Road.
02/10/09 (1pm onwards): Filming Jo and Bill's meeting scene and their 'days out' in Brockwell Park
07/10/09 (after school 5pm onwards): Filming progression of relationship and Bill discovering Jo's secret at Jo's house
09/10/09 (1pm onwards): Filming opening sequence (laptop scene and preparing to leave house) at Jo's house
(Media lessons in between these days will be used to edit the footage we have)
Monday, 21 September 2009
Friday, 18 September 2009
Script and Props
Filmed from both boy and girl’s perspective- boy’s recollections shown later in fast cutting rhythm
Scene 1
• Begins in her room, with diegetic sound of laptop playing one line of chorus of the song.
• Doll leaning against computer.
• Girl shuts the laptop and non-diegetic soundtrack kicks in of main track,
• As girl gets ready to go out- grabs purse or coat etc,
• Walks out of there room
• Walking down the road, fast match cuts
Scene 2
• Lyrics kick in
• Girl sitting on park bench, reading a [dolls] book inside a magazine
• Sees a boy walking in her direction wearing the same 6
• Colour tee-shirt as the doll
• She looks at it then looks at him (hides doll)
• They catch each other’s eyes and smile… he trips over; she sees if he is ok
• They talk, exchange numbers etc
• He calls her whilst she is holding the doll to arrange meeting up
When music changes Boy sees short shots of them out on dates:
• Sharing a meal,
• Sitting on swings,
• Having a picnic,
• Hugging
• Giving him a tee-shirt
• Saying I love you for the first
• Watching TV
Scene 3:
• Tells her he’s going to the toilet
• Walks up the stairs
• See’s her room – goes in to have a look
• See’s her room
• Camera shots of – doll books, doll on the bed,
• Shows a close up of boys face (shocked)
• Tracking shot of photographs of her and the doll
FLASHBACKS:
• Her putting the doll into the bag
• Close up of doll in the bag
• Close up of doll
• Spiking up his hair
• Giving him the t-shirt
• Feeding the ducks at the parks
• He remembers – shot of him looking worried
Scene 4:
• Cupboard shaking
• Boy opens the cupboard
• Looks in we see reaction in his face
• See 4 boys standing in the cupboard wearing red t-shirts like the doll
• Over the shoulder shot of a hand on the boys shoulder
• Medium shot of girls hand closing cupboard door
Scene 5:
• See the girl walking down the street as in before with doll in bag
• Returns to the park and starts to read a book in the same place as before
• Sees a young boy coming towards her
• Final shot close up of girls face smiling
PropsScene 1
• Begins in her room, with diegetic sound of laptop playing one line of chorus of the song.
• Doll leaning against computer.
• Girl shuts the laptop and non-diegetic soundtrack kicks in of main track,
• As girl gets ready to go out- grabs purse or coat etc,
• Walks out of there room
• Walking down the road, fast match cuts
Scene 2
• Lyrics kick in
• Girl sitting on park bench, reading a [dolls] book inside a magazine
• Sees a boy walking in her direction wearing the same 6
• Colour tee-shirt as the doll
• She looks at it then looks at him (hides doll)
• They catch each other’s eyes and smile… he trips over; she sees if he is ok
• They talk, exchange numbers etc
• He calls her whilst she is holding the doll to arrange meeting up
When music changes Boy sees short shots of them out on dates:
• Sharing a meal,
• Sitting on swings,
• Having a picnic,
• Hugging
• Giving him a tee-shirt
• Saying I love you for the first
• Watching TV
Scene 3:
• Tells her he’s going to the toilet
• Walks up the stairs
• See’s her room – goes in to have a look
• See’s her room
• Camera shots of – doll books, doll on the bed,
• Shows a close up of boys face (shocked)
• Tracking shot of photographs of her and the doll
FLASHBACKS:
• Her putting the doll into the bag
• Close up of doll in the bag
• Close up of doll
• Spiking up his hair
• Giving him the t-shirt
• Feeding the ducks at the parks
• He remembers – shot of him looking worried
Scene 4:
• Cupboard shaking
• Boy opens the cupboard
• Looks in we see reaction in his face
• See 4 boys standing in the cupboard wearing red t-shirts like the doll
• Over the shoulder shot of a hand on the boys shoulder
• Medium shot of girls hand closing cupboard door
Scene 5:
• See the girl walking down the street as in before with doll in bag
• Returns to the park and starts to read a book in the same place as before
• Sees a young boy coming towards her
• Final shot close up of girls face smiling
Props/costumes needed:
Doll (motif)
Dolls books
4 red t-shirts (red motif)
laptop
picnic blanket
food, plates, cutlery (for dinner scene)
candle
Tuesday, 15 September 2009
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