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Lewis Holgate

Initial Ideas

We wanted to create a media product that was close to the genre that as a group we all enjoyed listening to and could relate to because if you listen to this type of product for pleasure on a daily basis then it will be easier to create an accurate reconstruction of something typical to that particular genre and something that is close to other work from existing commercial media products.

Initial IdeasSome of the pre-existing material that we, as a group liked prior to the set task of the coursework was a range of mainly indie and rock bands from anywhere between 1970’s to present day. Here are some of the bands videos that I like to listen to and I feel have a similar look or sound to the band that we decided to use. The following videos have been chosen for a particular aspect e.g. a video may look like ours but sound nothing alike.

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

The Theories of Andrew Goodwin

He believed that the world is heavily influenced by the media

and that we are subject on a daily basis to advertisements

and corporate ideas of how we should live our lives. He said

that the world is plugged into an interweb of lies and deceit.

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LIQz6zZi7R0 The Arctic Monkeys – Cornerstone

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLESpHrtvxs The White Stripes – The Hardest Button to Button

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPvR7wNwRAo Patti Smith – Horses

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ILuNZYmAs5o Those Dancing Days – Hitten

Genre• The videos linked in the previous

slide are all typical of the indie rock and punk genre that as a group we were aiming to achieve for the image of the band. The band that we chose to use are called Funnel and are a six piece band from Accrington and have a similar look and/or sound to other bands within this genre.

• Some of the posted links are similar to and are inspirations to our own final product, we tried to include as many of the conventions of music videos that are commonly seen in such genres.

Music Video Conventions

The typical conventions of an average music video are usually:– Close-ups of the protagonist/band– There is usually emphasis on location shots– An intertextual storyline– A performance based section interlinked (especially with indie/rock bands)– A relationship between the music and the visuals on screen– Depending on the genre of the music there may be a specific technique or

style common within the video e.g. rap videos tend to include;- Close-ups of cars or women’s bodies, more static camera shots, low angles and feature the rapper throughout the whole video in order to make them look in power in order to get across the image of the artist of being rich, attractive and popular.

– In some cases there will be a band that will break all the typical conventions of the music video and will develop what is called their own star iconography.

So how did we adhere to generic media conventions from within our genre?

Take a look for yourself:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fizIPVGFlCUIf you study the music video that we have created it should become apparent that we have tried to use as many conventions that are seen in an indie music video such as•Close-ups and other establishing shots of the performing artist and location

We tried to edit the video to match the pace of the song to ensure good continuity within the sequence

We involved a contextual cake that was held by the artist

• On the shoot the artist dressed in a crazy dress and goggles to express her creativity and also to promote the fun that the band are all about. This is not often seen in this genre as indie has an attitude of being ‘cool’ and ‘collected’ that is not at all reflected in her outfit.

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

The Ancillary TasksAll three of our products have been designed to all carry the same

connotations and similar styles in order to fit in with the quirky genre that we are working with. The final products that we have decided to use have been selected because we feel that they are the strongest works and that they all typical media products that would be released by a band that are aiming to please. The video as previously seen includes the forefront of the style of the band because of the sound and the vision created though contextual micro elements.The album cover and art are definitely relevant to the genre of the band because of the old woman sat in her living room surrounded by hundreds of random trinkets and ornaments. This picture, I feel helps to express the again ‘quirky’ nature of the band and the light hearted attitude they have towards their music.The magazine advert is a harder task to create the correct image for because it is not often that a bands image seen in a magazine ad is typical or obvious enough to give away the exact genre and the type of music they play. So I included a picture of the band in a small kitchen, the lead singer Joe wearing a retro dress and headwear and the band also wearing vintage and trendy clothes but the text backing up most of the band image with a retro title.

I feel that there was coherent links between all three of the media products that we have created and I think that the key to that was ensuring that we used the band as much as we could for the pictures and video clips because when using the band and telling them to dress how they would at a gig there comes an instant recognisable signature of the band because we are working around them instead of trying to shape them into an idea that we had.

The reverse cover from the album art

Other Bands and their

brand image used in

magazine articles

Audience Feedback

7

87

8

8

6

66

5

General Consensus!

•Good chosen location•Quirky Style, matched the song•Creative•Micro elements work well together•‘makes me feel happy’•Good performance•Average mark out of ten – 8•It appeals to its target audience

The Feedback Video

By filming the audience feedback, it was possible for us to see the responses of each individual in the class and also to learn in which ways we could improve our work from every angle by averaging our responses.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=buZXEMTkNPs

PositivesThese are the parts of the video that the viewers found either entertaining, amusing and what they generally enjoyed.

• Good syncing Lips and movements made by the performer.• We gained a good overall score from the averages taken from the marks out of ten.•The class saw the video and commented on the performance stating that it was very authentic and that it fit within the genre that the music comes from and that the performer clearly likes the music that she creates.•We were said to have used an experimental and quirky elements such as the costume that she wore and the shots that we used.•One group member commented that the shot where the cakes are laid out to spell out Funnel – Cake was something that they would not have thought of themselves.•The mise en scene went perfectly well with the style of music chosen.•An overall enjoyable video to watch.

Negatives• Some people found the lip syncing to be out of time and that it was obvious that

she was miming the words in parts.• They said that we could have perhaps used a wider range of locations and variety

within our film.• It was maybe too typical from the usual music video.• It is what they expected.

Technology Used• The internet – Through out the entire project the internet has probably been

the most important facility because without the internet we wouldn’t have been able to research, blog, download videos and contact artists without easy access to the web.

• Video Camera – The camera was needed prolifically for the production of the music video. The camera was also used to film the audience’ feedback after the first showing to the class, so we can see expression and listen to answers given by the class. Through film it is also easier to tell who the video best suited to by looking at what type of people give what type of answers.

• Digital Camera – I used a digital camera when I went out and took the pictures of the band at the house, seen featured in the ancillary tasks.

• Scanner – We used the computer scanner in order to upload our storyboards and questionnaires completed by the class in response to the video viewing.

Production of the Music Video

An important and what I feel to be one of the hardest aspects to set up and yet a very simple looking part of the video. At the beginning of the video when Joe is clicking to the beat of the music was very hard to synchronise with the pre-laid track. In order to achieve this effect I had to play both layers of sound. One layer was from the live recording and the sound used to help keep Joe in sync and the other layers that I had to position in parallel lines was from the sound that we converted from another you tube video that the band had already uploaded.

A shot that I managed and filmed myself was a high angle of Peter playing guitar in the middle of a tennis court that was in an open space so it was hard to get the camera into a high enough position to get the shot that we wanted without getting the camera way above head height so to get around this problem I extended the legs of the tripod to maximum length and held the camera above my head pointing down at him, this created a simple yet effective high angle and gave a dramatic edge to the most upbeat part of the song.