In what ways does your Media Product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real Media Products?
There were many things that we had to take into account when we were researching and making our music video, such as:
-Band image
-Relationship to lyrics
-Narrative structure
(and the most important)
-Relationship and impact on the target audience
Each of the four members of our band are represented and styled in different ways. The bassist is dressed quite eccentrically. He is wearing a shooting waistcoat, a bright orange t-shirt, ripped jeans and battered trainers. He comes across as quite wild, and represents the more outgoing fans of the Indie genre. The drummer is quite rebellious. In the video he is wearing tracksuit bottoms, a hooded top and a beanie hat. All of which are black other than his trainers. All of the band members fall into the Indie clothing category, but they all express and develop their styles in different ways. Quite often in Indie music, band members would wear smart-casual clothing amd they would try to incorporate skinny jeans, quite tight fitting t-shirts and jackets into it.
The lead singer in our band is wearing clothes like this. As well as the superman t-shirt, he is wearing blue skinny jeans, a green hooded shirt and popular, chunky trainers. Shoes like these will often be found in indie videos. It proves that there are many strands leading away from the indie style, this particular one is linked to the skateboard scene, where big shoes such as those are a necessity as well as a fashion statement.In the video we do show some performance of the song, but we don't dwell on it. We were intending of having the characters running with their instruments, but even though it would allow new audience members to see what part each character plays in the band, we didn't feel that it was necessary as
1) It wouldn't fit with the narrative
2) (Not linking to the audience) It would have been too dangerous to run and jump around carrying expensive instruments, as if anything bad happened or anything was damaged we wouldn't have been able to afford the repairs.
Very rarely within this genre will musical synesthesia occur. Seeing as the videos themselves are querki and random, the audience wouldn't need the constant extra confusion. Saying this, you will sometimes come across one video where there is a short synesthesic snippet, adding to the comedic value of the video as a whole. We were intending to incorporate an idea like this into our music video (during the words "I've got to keep myself from drinking on these streets" we were going to show one of the characters perched on the floor, drinking juice from a can - we intended it not to be alcoholic as it would yet again, add to the comedic value of the video), but due to timing constraints we didn't have the time. I don't feel that our video has suffered at all even though we are missing it. For us the most noticeable link between the lyrics and the video, is the fact that the song is called "Money" and the characters are chasing for a bag (which we know is full of money). This isn't incredibly noticeable for audience, maybe for the first few times that they watch the video. This isn't a bad thing though as this sense of mystery creates a good enigma, as no-one knows what the band are chasing for. It definitely adds to the repeatability factor of the music video.
Quite often in music videos there are a lot of comedic references and also intertextuality.
We incorporated intextuality into our video through the fact that the singer is wearing a Superman t-shirt. The reference is very subtle as you only see it for a millisecond before he zips his jumper over the top of it. We wanted this form of intertextuality to appear in the video as it does reference the singers personality, his retro tshirt preferences shows that he conforms to the dominant stereotypes within male Indie performers, as you will often find that they wear clothes such as this.
There is definitely some form of narrative in our video, even if it isn't the easiest to grasp the first time around. The whole idea of the video is that the musicians of the band meet up, and race eachother to a bag of money, floating in the middle of a swimming pool. During this time the singer is waking up, and decides to leave the house for a walk. In his travels he comes across the rest of the band, battling it out for the money, and so he gets in on the act. After a comedic take on a vehicle race, they all enter the pool house through in different ways, and just-so-happen to all dive in for the money at the same time. We had always intended the video to end before the characters land in the water, as it leaves the audience wanting more, and we were pleased with the way that the video did end. During our audience feedback many of the viewers couldn't get their heads around the narrative after the first viewing, but after we explained it, it all seemed to make sense to them, which was a relief!
There is definitely some form of narrative in our video, even if it isn't the easiest to grasp the first time around. The whole idea of the video is that the musicians of the band meet up, and race eachother to a bag of money, floating in the middle of a swimming pool. During this time the singer is waking up, and decides to leave the house for a walk. In his travels he comes across the rest of the band, battling it out for the money, and so he gets in on the act. After a comedic take on a vehicle race, they all enter the pool house through in different ways, and just-so-happen to all dive in for the money at the same time. We had always intended the video to end before the characters land in the water, as it leaves the audience wanting more, and we were pleased with the way that the video did end. During our audience feedback many of the viewers couldn't get their heads around the narrative after the first viewing, but after we explained it, it all seemed to make sense to them, which was a relief!
The more immature, comedic bands within the Indie genre would have a small clip before the song starts in their video, it may have talking. More often than not it will be for comedic purposes. We did this in our video, but we also used it to set the scene. If people are watching our music video, they will see a character sleeping on his front, allowing more of an enigma to be created as they don't know who it is. We wanted the audience to know that the video is comedic, so by having conforming to the stereotype that male teenagers are lazy, we showed our lead singer struggling to wake up in the morning. We are very happy with how it came out, and I personally thought that having the singer's alarm sound as a snippet of the song to come was a nice touch. Only the more intuitive viewers may notice this first time around, but hopefully the audience will wonder whether the alarm is actually the song more and more, adding to the repeatabilty factor of the music video.
To do this, we used the sound from the actual clip that we recorded on location. What the audience don't see is Charlie from our group holding a laptop behind the camera, playing the song through it's speakers. The fact that the song sounds so compressed from being played out of a laptop and then out of video camera speakers worked well for us, as due to the sound being tinny, it makes it totally believable that the sound could be coming from a mobile phone.
To do this, we used the sound from the actual clip that we recorded on location. What the audience don't see is Charlie from our group holding a laptop behind the camera, playing the song through it's speakers. The fact that the song sounds so compressed from being played out of a laptop and then out of video camera speakers worked well for us, as due to the sound being tinny, it makes it totally believable that the sound could be coming from a mobile phone.
One of the main similarities between the characters in the video and the target audience is age. All of the personas featured within the video are between 17 and 19. This is the younger section of our target audience (those between 16 and 40). The way our characters are dressed reflects the way that the youth of today are usually dressed. Obviously this changes from person to person, and quite often it reflects what music they listen to. You will very rarely come across someone wearing all black, with big leather boots, long black hair, a pale face and black make-up, dusted off with studded belts and piercings, listening to the latest 50 Cent album. We wanted the fans of our band to appreciate our video, and we felt that the best way to do this was to give them a comedic video that was enjoyable to watch more than once. We made sure that the jokes didn't seem to desperate and also that there were small details referencing other ancillary texts that some may notice after watching the videos a few times. We attempted to make a video that would be a memorable experience to watch, not just one of 'those' videos that nobody can remember two days after they watched it.
We have made the CD cover very simple. We didn't want to over-complicate it with too many bright colours and too much text. We have simply used one photograph that we took on location. As the most noticeable part of our album cover is the long road, we wanted the text to be within it, and look as if it as was actually on the road. We did this on Adobe Photoshop by inserting the text layer, then going into the editor, changing the angle to make it sit more suitably on the road, and then we added a filter and changed the colour scheme to make it seem a lot more granulated, as if it had been pasted onto the road.
A lot of bands within the Indie genre choose to have a very simple album cover, take for instance Favourite Worst Nightmare by the Arctic Monkeys. They have a very plain photograph of a block of terraced houses. The atmosphere is very bleak, the sky is dark and grey, and all in all it looks very boring, and lonley. To spruce it up they add an awkward Arctic Monkeys logo with the name of the album directly underneath, both are placed at a strange angle (this is exactly what we've done) and then coming from some of the windowns in one of the houses there are some very bright neon lights and funky shapes. The text on the album volour is yellow, and the fact that it is coming from the sky could represent a lightening bolt, adding some excitement to the photograph. They would have done this to make the logo actually look like it is part of the scene, which is the look that we have gone for in our CD cover. The only difference between this piece of artwork and the one that Animal House produced is that the Animal House one shows the members of the band.
How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
There were many purposes for our music video, to show off our personalities and to promote the song, to show viewers that the band matches the criteria of the genre and also to show that each member had their individual style. Saying this, the main purpose of most music videos is to entertain the audience. I think that we managed to accomplish all of these very well. After hearing our audience feedback we learnt that all our characters came across as very believeable people. Within the video we conform to the notions of Steve Archer's theory, as we have a mixture of performance and narrative within the video. We develop this idea by incorpora
ting the performance into the narrative, i.e. when the singer is cleaning his teeth before he leaves the house, he is singing into the mirror at the same time.
Because we follow the guidelines of Steve Archer's theory, it comes across that the band has a real and positive connection to the music, with is pleasing for the audience to watch. We also follow his theory to more of an extent with our digipack. There is a definite relationship between the narrative of the video and the photos we used in our digipack. For instance, the television, used in both the front and back cover. During the video, when the band are running out the barn, the guitarist is on a bike, the bassist is holding a table and the drummer runs out holding an old television.
Because we follow the guidelines of Steve Archer's theory, it comes across that the band has a real and positive connection to the music, with is pleasing for the audience to watch. We also follow his theory to more of an extent with our digipack. There is a definite relationship between the narrative of the video and the photos we used in our digipack. For instance, the television, used in both the front and back cover. During the video, when the band are running out the barn, the guitarist is on a bike, the bassist is holding a table and the drummer runs out holding an old television.
This on its own adds to the querkiness of the video, but then when shown in the CD covers, you notice a definite link. If the audience were to spot this then they could feel that they had inside knowledge to others who may not pay particular attention. This is similar to the Uses and Gratifications model where the audience are taking something from the media, as they themselves are noticing the link.
The text on the back cover is the same font as the text used throughout the rest of the CD spreads, but instead of lining them up square, we angled them so the line was purposely un-even. We did this to prove that we are not always conforming to the rules made by the media, and that we are not a straight-down-the-line Indie band, we are our own people. The jauntiness of the words could be seen to represent our rebellious streak.
The text on the back cover is the same font as the text used throughout the rest of the CD spreads, but instead of lining them up square, we angled them so the line was purposely un-even. We did this to prove that we are not always conforming to the rules made by the media, and that we are not a straight-down-the-line Indie band, we are our own people. The jauntiness of the words could be seen to represent our rebellious streak.
When it came to our digipack, we wanted to prove to the audience that we are an artistically literate band with substantial intellect. Our simple but artistic photos and inlays show the audience that we run our own image and that we're not being controlled by the media.
We didn't want to over complicate the CD inlays. We decided to have three different inlays, all with a similar sort of structure. The background of the photos are subtle colours that are pleasing to the eye, with just "Animal House", written in black underneath the photo, to the right hand side of the spread. The photos are humorous and are not to be taken majorly seriously. The whole purpose of them was the entertain the audience who look in the booklet inside the CD case. We have made the photos fun and enjoyable to look at as it makes the group seem more believable and the individual characters within the band seem much more 'real' and not just manufactured. We wanted the photos to actually look like we'd taken them ourselves without a whole crew setting up a photo shoot. If audience members were to notice this then it would incline them to think that we wrote all our music ourselves, and that we are a totally self-made band.
We had a screening for our video and digipack one lunchtime where we showed students and teachers (around the age of our target audience) and anyone else who wanted to view the video. To say the least they enjoyed it very much so, which pleased us as a group! After they watched the video we asked them a series of questions about their opinions. Before we asked them questions we made them agree to answer truthfully and not to just say that they thought it was good as it was our coursework, which they were all happy to do.
They were all very certain that the video matched those within the Indie genre. One of our younger teachers pointed out that
and that it appealed to them very much. When planning the project we had decided that the video was to come across as quirky, so in that sense, we were over the moon. Bands such as the Arctic Monkeys actually aim their music at students and those in their mid 20's, so to here an opinion like that from someone within that age category filled us with joy."... the video was very quirky..."
There were a few things that the audience weren't clear on, for instance, the narrative. They weren't 100% sure why the band members were running, and quite a lot of them didn't actually notice the bag in the middle of the swimming pool for the last scene.
We did actually try very hard to make the bag noticeable, but there was an obvious flaw that we didn't show it enough in the video.
After we asked them all of these questions and listened to their opinions, we then explained everything to them and showed the video again. After the second viewing the narrative was clear to everyone and they seemed to enjoy it a lot more.
One of the questions we asked them was whether they would want to view the video again, and investigate further into the band. They gave us a positive response and agreed that because we had successfully created a good sense of enigma, they would definitely want to see the video again, for two reasons...
1) Because it is enjoyable to watch
2) They wanted to understand the video more and more.
When we showed the audience our digipack, they were very positive as well. They particularly liked the front cover for the CD as they thought it made the band seem very believable, and not just like four A Level students taking a photo for their coursework. Within the CD cover they thought that the angled, slightly granulated font worked well as it was subtle, yet very clear and artistic. They also agreed with us that the filter worked well, and that it wasn't too over the top.
The audience that we showed the video to also noticed the comedic aspects of our video. This was a big relief for me as when we were filming the music video weOverall, we felt that it was safe to say that the audience were suitably impressed with our project, and as a group, we couldn't have been happier with their feedback.
How did you use Media Technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?
When brainstorming earlier in the project, we were adament on the fact that we wanted to film the video using a HD video camera. We felt that it would be beneficial in the long run as it would enhance the viewing quality of our film. Admittedly, we didn't export our video into the biggest/widest aspect possible, but we are still very happy with the quality, even when blown up onto a big screen/projector. One of the most challenging shots to get was the swimming pool scene at the end of the video. We wanted to make sure that most of the pool was in the shot, but still allow the characters who were jumping into it seem big, allowing them to be the most noticeable objects on screen.
When brainstorming earlier in the project, we were adament on the fact that we wanted to film the video using a HD video camera. We felt that it would be beneficial in the long run as it would enhance the viewing quality of our film. Admittedly, we didn't export our video into the biggest/widest aspect possible, but we are still very happy with the quality, even when blown up onto a big screen/projector. One of the most challenging shots to get was the swimming pool scene at the end of the video. We wanted to make sure that most of the pool was in the shot, but still allow the characters who were jumping into it seem big, allowing them to be the most noticeable objects on screen.
We then edited our video using Final Cut Express. As we have all been doing Media Studies for a year already, we are as good as fluent on the editing software. As we all were proficient when using final cut express, maticulous editing was vital, and one of the most important things was timing. As you can see in the next clip, the important happenings of the scene are emphasised by being placed on the hits of the drum fill.
When creating the CD cover we used Adobe Photoshop to piece all of the layers together. We worked hard on choosing mature fonts and simple colours, whilst effectively making an aesthetically pleasing CD cover. We used a high quality camera to take the photos and we took everything from apperture settings to simply the flash into account to make sure we got the best possible picture. We made the poster in a similar fashion. We added a filter to the photograph to give it a more hand-drawn effect. We did this to catch the eye of a passer by, and to make it stand out when in a magazine or on a shop window. I am glad we managed to create this effect without being too extreme. The subtlety of it allows us to look professional and not just like "another boy band".
Normally the research for a project is completed and handed in on paper. For our media research (as you can see) we kept it all together on a group blog. As well as making everything much more organised, it allowed our teachers to track and comment on our work, meaning that we could improve. Having easy and quick access to the internet meant that contacting bands about whether we could use their song was very simple. It also allowed audience feedback to be simple as we could simply post it onto Youtube. Youtube proved very useful for researching other band's music videos, and we also managed to view previous A, B and C grade worthy A2 Media Studies group's coursework, to see what sort of level we need to be aiming at, or trying to exceed.
One of the most important things within our project is self evaluation and audience feedback. We created a Facebook group meaning that the members of it could view our video and tell us their response. We even posted a small questionnaire in the discussion column. We worded some of the questions very simply and others in a more complex fashion, so that everyone could understand and answer.
Overall, we all felt that we used Media Technologies to a good extent and at a good quality, and we are sure that our project would have suffered without.
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