1. In What Ways Does Your Media Product Use, Develop or Challenge Forms And Conventions Of Real Media Products?

To begin with, when we started this project we observed a variety of different genres and styles of music. When searching for our piece we created a collaboration of elements from different videos, some used in our final piece and some not. One video that particularly took Ethan’s interest was Eminem’s – Lose Yourself, he took the performance from Marshall and created his own interpretation of not only singing the lyrics, but showing the emotions applied to the words meanings through the dynamic motions and intense facial expressions.

Another piece that took our interest was ‘All of the Lights’ – Kanye West, this caught our attention through the graphics used. The shear amount of time and effort seen incorporated into this video is obvious, this design was considered too advanced for the amount of time we had to do our piece, also the concept wouldn’t add much in the way of marks as the piece is more about the shots and styles which graphics seem to be used as just some supportive roles.

We then decided on our piece being End Credits, with this knowledge our team narrowed the search for ideas and looked into the genre of Drum & Bass, and the types of videos seemed to relate to the narrative style. With this focus and information we had gained we decided to create our own narrative storyline, this was achieved fairly quickly after browsing through the lyrics as a group and realizing that the dark theme running through the words, we then had an ideas session where we used the lyrics creating a semantic field of dystopia. This then became the main design of our piece, using the idea of fast cutting and people disappearing in split shots we had the storyline of Matt hitting Keir, releasing the dystopian dream theme mentioned again in the lyrics.

Apart from the conventional attributes used we also had our own original ideas such as the genius and spontaneous decision to use three cameras inside the studio simultaneously, this then meant that when editing we had it from three different shot lengths and angles, but however the originality of this was through the editing as Matt incorporated the style and main attribute of the song by not only synchronising the lips with the songs vocals, but also the cuts, increasing the intense atmosphere by speeding up the cuts when the beat drops between the acoustic sections.

According to Goodwin’s Theory, there are six steps a music video should consider when being produced to get the most out of the piece.

GOODWIN’S THEORY

1. Music videos demonstrate genre characteristics. – The piece our group has produced is a clear demonstration of the first step, in drum and bass there is a strong element of a beat and the bass combined, this was applied in the piece by the syncing of the beat with the fast paced cuts. we have both Narrative as in the sense of there being a storyline clearly shown throughout the piece by Matt and Keir, and Performance portrayed successfully by Ethan by singing the song, acting the song and also playing the guitar parts of the piece.

2. There is a relationship between lyrics and visuals. – The piece runs along the theme of dreams which is referred to in the lyrics, also the narrative is the feeling of death which is through lyrical interpretation.

3. There is a relationship between music and visuals. – As I previously mentioned we synced the beats with the fast motion of cuts, also Ethan plays the guitar at the points you hear guitar and the strumming pattern has also been synchronized.

4. The demands of the record label will include the need for lots of close-ups of the artist and the artist may develop motifs which recur across their work. – There are 3 different camera positions on the performer showing lots of close ups and recognizable footage to promote his visual familiarity in connection to the music, also the use of the acoustic guitar which is a predominant feature in the piece and one of the main attributes to the artists sound.

5. There is frequently reference to the notion of looking and particularly voyeuristic treatment of the female body. – Through the progression of the narrative Keir is walking around different settings that contain religious or dystopian qualities, looking for answers to why he’s there. However we do not use voyeuristic treatment of the female body as we have only male figures in this piece and the focus is mainly on finding answers, so the fast pace of the video doesn’t allow those kind of shots.

6.There is often intertextual reference. – Our piece only refers to its own lyrics and meaning, such as its themes of Dreams and Religion, but apart from them then our piece doesn’t use any other kind of incorporation of any other promotional views visually. It does however through the use of adding Plan B to be the singer of the track; this refers the link between Chase & Status and Plan B as artists, promoting not only their music but also the mash up of mainstream rap/pop and drum & bass.

2.How effective is the Combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

It is clear to see that the CD front cover and magazine advert compliment each other, and follow the same design and basic genre. They both however do not completely relate to the video itself, which has a dark, mysterious feel to it. We decided to create the artwork in a lighter, less sinister way because we wanted it to appeal to a wide age range and not jus a specific group within society as well as promote our single. Dull advertisements are often overlooked; in terms or catching the readers’ eye it works better when the page visibly stands out.

It is clear that the Gwen Stafani Album advert is a lot more likely to catch a reader’s eye than the Ice Cube one. This may be determined by the genre of music behind the actual album. The benefited us as out song, End Credits - Chase and Status, doesn’t fall in to a specific music category as easy as other songs might. It has elements such as Drum & Bass, but mixes them with Indie and throughout more softer singing and guitar. This was an advantage when creating both our Magazine Album Advert and CD case, as we only really had to take into consideration the video itself, and not really the Song as it could go down so many different routes.

We decided to keep the Album Advert and CD cover simple and easily digestible, as we thought this would be the most effective way of being recognised and selling records in reality. We used the font Cooper Black for the writing on both our ancillary texts’, we hope that people would notice this and then begin to relate the font with our CD cover/Advert, which would, in turn, connect to our song. Some CD designs and Magazine Album Adverts we had previously seen inspired this. Both the Razorlight and Green Day Texts are simply yet highly effective. As a group we especially liked the Razorlight, as it is a simple picture of the band with only the name of the band printed above them. It really show how some less is more.

We decided to use Ethan as the ‘Face of out Song’, Despite Keir, Matt and Ethan playing relatively equal roles as characters within the video. This was final choice as we only wanted to use one person in our ancillary texts, and Ethan was the main performer in the video, which is often the role of the artists themselves. As our video has a religious, fictional and dystopian theme running through it, Ethan may be seen as a sort of guidance or angel type character with in the music video. This seems strange as he is predominantly involved in the Performance side in the video, however that was his only role. He is also in some of the narrative scenes and shots of the video.

Here Ethan can be seen still playing and singing the song on the stage, as Keir and Matt cross through the Abandoned Theatre. This was effective as it meant the Performance and Narrative sides of our music video were combined. Also it meant Ethan had an even more principle role within the video, which was another factor in to why he should represent our video on both the CD case and Album Magazine Advert.

Although the Music Video may not at first seem to entirely relate to the ancillary texts’, it does in a more complex way. Overall we were all happy with the outcome of both our CD case and Album Magazine Advert, as we believe if we were an actual marketing agency or the artist themselves, both ancillary text’s would help sell the product.

3. What have we learned from audience feedback ?

We shown our music production to various people round the college and we found that similar feed back was repetitively positive and most people saw the same things they liked and the same things they thought could be improved. Our group created a questionnaire to keep a specific answer range. We wanted to find out technical/narrative/performance opinions, The video was shown to non media candidates to see if our video had obvious good or bad points to it that they could spot. Generally the feed back was positive. The questionnaire was made of 6 questions to keep a minimal yet effective response.

The people who answered the question all commented on the lighting of our piece. One person said " The lighting helps create a dystopian effect". This is positive as we were trying to create an environment to look uncomfortable. Visibility is an effect we used to dim and lighten our piece in places e.g. the theatre was dimmed but the street scene was lighten brightly for high visibility.
We chose not to return to the video for change once we had produced a final production piece. We chose not to return as our video was clear to portray accurate representations to students who had no media based back ground information commented on the parts of our piece we tried to make subtle representations: Costume, Lighting and narrative. This was encouraging to us as a group as it contributed into the satisfaction we had after finishing our piece. The feedback helped us reflect on our piece for the positive and negative analysis.

The feedback was much appreciated and although we chose not to change our video based on audience feedback it was not ignored in any shape or form. We have all took on board what was said, if we were to ever create a future production the comments we received would definitely be applied.

Positively talked about features in our video was the Narrative, Angles and Performance. A student interviewed said "The variety of camera shots (meaning angles) was good and it worked well creating a diversion to just focusing on one feature like the people on camera". We did hold a variety of angles and shots so having feedback like this would definitely motivate us to use a range of angles in future pieces.

However we also had negatively points about aspects. We were repeatedly told we should have used "one more place to film" (meaning location) This was heavily disappointing as we filmed in a set number of locations as we wanted the piece to flow smoothly and not be so diverse it couldn't be easily understood. Another negative comment we received was about the "editing transitions being repeated". Our song was at 160 beats per minute. Our editing transition was matched to the songs bpm through various parts of the film a good example is walking through the theatre the shots switch between angles to match the under lying drum beat throughout the song.
In light of the audience feed back we reflected over our piece and contemplated whether the feed back was honest and accurate or just there as other things were awkward to comment upon. We realized that the feedback given was honest but out of our own opinion we decided our piece went well and probably couldn't of portrayed differently if was to work in sync with our narrative.
The feedback was helpful and although hearing the criticized comments we took them constructively and negotiated between us which were the most eye opening and which were irrelevant to our piece. We presented our video to 8 people and the general over view of it was positive.

This is the questionnaire we used:

4. How did you use media technologies in the research, planning, filming and editing stages?

Throughout the process of making our music video we used a wide variety of technology from Google Earth to Final Cut Pro. This helped us produce the best, most realistic video we could. In the early stages when we were researching a track for our coursework we used YouTube to browse and listen to songs. YouTube is massively popular and has millions of songs instantly available for us to listen to. Obviously this proved very useful as within an hour we had narrowed it down to four of five songs and by the end of the lesson we had chosen our track. YouTube was also great as it allowed us to watch music videos which helped give us ideas on what kind of story and performance we’d like to create. The next step was the planning of our music video. Once we had a rough idea of what our video was going to be like, we used Google Earth to look for filming locations and take screenshots to add to our storyboard. This proved useful as we knew in advance where we were filming and what it would look like.
The filming of our music video is where we made the best use of the technology available. For the narrative elements of our video we used a handheld canon camera, which we found had pros and cons when filming. Because it is a cheaper college issued camera, the quality in some shots looks quite poor and grainy and especially in the chapel scene the shots are very dark and unclear. However in parts we felt this added to the vagueness and mystery of the narrative element. On the plus side, we found the camera’s battery life was longer than necessary which meant we didn’t have to worry about bringing spare batteries or memory cards. Also the size of the camera meant it wasn’t a hassle to transport as we could simply put it in one of our bags.
The performance element of our video also used a lot of technology which greatly benefitted our final piece. In the studio we had three professional standard cameras. This meant the quality of our footage was much better than the narrative side which helped it stand out in our final piece. We were able to move the cameras around to get three different, well framed shots. Then using the zoom and focus buttons we could make the shots more interesting and vary them throughout the song. We were also able to switch between cameras on the beat using the control system which in post-production gives the video a professional feel as it cuts between shots in time with the beat.
During the editing process we used Final Cut Pro. This is expert quality software which meant we could take our footage and make it into something which mirrors professional videos. The dual screens meant we could have one screen to preview where we were up to and the other was used solely for editing. Final Cut Pro allowed us to easily insert the track and lock it so it couldn’t accidently be changed. It also allowed us to layer clips so we could just have the whole performance with the narrative over it then easily cut between the two. One of the most useful features of Final Cut Pro was the “snap” ability, this meant when we added a new shot it automatically snapped onto the end of the least shot meaning there were no blank gaps or spaces in our video. Another useful feature was the marker button. With this we were able to place markers in time to the beat and then fit our shots around that.
By using the wide variety of technology available in our research, planning, filming and editing we were able to create a near-professional music video with a strong narrative and performance.

Directors Commentary

Magazine Advert

Magazine Analysis

This is the finished product of our Magazine Advertisment. We have included the artist who represents the performance and song attached. Also shown is the pricing for obvious reasons, the where abouts for the products major selling departments, and also the date of the singles release.
These are made prodominent as the main point of the advert is to jump out at the reader and supply easy, simple information with the intensity for the person to want to buy the single.We also use a rating shown by a top branded and respected company in the selected industry of music NME.
Using their influence and positivity towards the single will increase the number of people willing to give the song a chance and watch the music video for hits.

Progress of magazine article

Ideas for the magazine advert

We began ideas for the magazine advert by thinking about what we wanted to promote our artist and song like. We also realized there are standard images and content to a poster that needed to be added to create authenticity such as the price, places selling or promoting the single and a quote as evidence of the singles success.
When we had decided that Ethan would be the cover as he represented the performance element in the music video, we decided the fomality (for example his dress code being smart) of the shot, the style of shot (a slightly raised medium ranged front on body shot) if he was going to be holding an item of any kind (we decided against this due to a lack of inspirational ideas) and the background, which we chose a wall shot as it coincides with the album cover.
We then used Adobe Photoshop to design the text aroudn the picture, we kept the theme of using the font Cooper Black from the album cover so that when people see either of the two items they can relate the font to the artist.
We then switched the poster to Microsoft Powerpoint as the system was a lot simpler to use when adding graphics to the picture, Ethan then used the shapes tool in Powerpoint to find a landscape scroll shape and changed its transparancy layering it on the bottom half of the picture as a base for the selected stores. Then using logos from ASDA, Amazon.com and HMV.co.uk we created a supporting shopping element of promotion to the single.
We've tried to make this poster look as simple but effective as possible, we believe that filling it with a load unecessary information will only hinder the poster and take away the raw detail behind it, this in which relates to drum and bass and the beats they use, too many layers of tracking or too many different beats over each other and the pureness of the track is lost.

Back Cover CD Case

Back Cover Analysis

When creating the outside back cover we decided to differ from the outside front cover, from the artist style front cover, we thought the subtle transition of white to black fade gives the professional feel to the piece, also the white border gives a dynamic element to the graphics, such as the use of the continuation of the font Cooper Black keeps the theme going.

The design of the back cover is using the songs name in a literal sense, as its layout is in the style of the 'End Credits' of a movie. The addition of the patterns seen in movie credits and THE END placed underneath shows the commitment to the theme.

We also added the necessary information such as the small writing explaining the ownership and the label that the artist is related to, and the barcode creating the products into a merchandise and a source of income for the company.

Base Cover CD Case

Inside Cover

Media CD Front Cover

CD Front Cover

The front cover has been deisgned to capture the audience with a cold hard themed motion. The use of the dark colour themes against the black text gives a striking look so that when people walk past, they are made to second glance the cover and gain an interest to the design. This then results in an interest for the single.
The use of adding the artist to the front cover gives something for the audience to relate the vocals to when they are listening to the track. it also breaks the contact barrier between the music and the artist behind it.
The text is in Cooper Black for the band and artist, and then Stencil for the song name. These two fonts compliment each other and are also both neat and brushed to give a smoothness to the cover.
We have added a Parental Advisory so the cover as the necessity is needed as the song does include taboo language/explicit content. If this was not included the audience range would provide children listening to its lyrics and repeating them which no doubt the parents would be shocked and disapprove resulting in a large quanity of people suing the label decreasing the income and reputation.
There is also a website address in the bottom corner relating to the band to which merchandise and other possesions can be bought increasing profits, its a version of self promotion.

Location 4: Back Street

For the end of our film we decided to film a scene where Keir and Matt would finally meet but with a slight twist in the narrative. We wanted to base the final chapter to our narrative somewhere that could maybe seem closer to reality that the previous locations.

We used a simple wide shot, with Matt walking towards the camera, and Keir away from it. as they passed each other keir turned around to see Matt dissapear. In a way this scene resolves the whole narrative of our music video, as it is when the audience discovers Matt is just a figure of keir's imagination.

Location 3: Chapel

The Chapel in Hulme was ideal for out third location. We were denied access to the Abandoned Theatre when we were due to complete our filming there. This however turned out be a positive as it meant we included another location in our music video. The chapel is now a key aspect in our video.We changed the story slightly to help include our new location.

We came up with the idea that the Keir would enter a range of different dream/delusional memories, the chapel being one of these. In the chapel is where we filmed one of the most important scenes in the video itself. Keir finally confronts Matt, who is also a feature of his memory.

The light in the Chapel was dim, which suited the atmosphere of this particular scene. It was also extremely helpful as the light beaming through the stain glass windows made great images which we included in our film. Other images, such as statues in the chapel and the figures of biblical characters.

There was a higher level to the Chapel, which was a great to film from. The hight advantage meant we could pan Keir walking towards Matt. We filmed the same shot from a few different angles, but the basis of the scene was the shots we took from the higher level.

Song Lyrics In Relation To Our Piece

Peformance Elements

The performance element of our music video is the most important aspect because it features so heavily within our video. We wanted something to go in contrast with the narrative element of Keir's storyline helping it stand out. To achieve this we used the studio facilities within college to record Ethan performing the entire song. The studio equipment meant we could film once from three separate cameras, using the controls to flick between cameras in time to the beat. The other members of our group stood on the cameras making sure they were in focus and properly zoomed on Ethan. We decided to have one camera zoomed on the guitar, one zoomed on Ethan's face and the other as a wide shot showing the whole of Ethan against the black backdrop. We filmed the entire song several times so we had a good variety of shots to work with when editing later in the suite. The first take was of Ethan playing guitar and singing, we used this because it fits very well with the more mellow intro and outro. The next version was of Ethan singing with the guitar on his back. This was effective because it captures the anger and passion of Plan B's voice and looked great on screen during the fast paced parts of the song. The final version we shot was of Ethan's shadow singing and playing guitar. This provided us with extra variety and fitted perfectly with the outro when the drums had dropped out. When putting the music video together we used all three versions of the performance to give our video that extra layer, it looked great when we cut between performance and narrative quickly on the beat, with Ethan flashing up in time to the drums. We also decided to put the performance into black and white during post production, this improved our music video as viewers can clearly distinguish between the performance and narrative making it stand out and leaving an impression on the viewers. We are all pleased with how our performance element was done and how it turned out in our final version of the music video. We feel it looks crisp and clear agabinst the blurry haze of the narrative.

Error on Youtube

Adding our video to Youtube was unsuccessful, this was due to copywrite issues of the use of the Chase and Status music as its owned by UMG. As soon as we tried adding our video through Matt's account, within five second almost, it was removed by UMG, we tried many different codes and ways of publishing the video on there, but everytime we have been blocked. Matt even linked the video to their company as a contributor but still no such luck as they still blocked it. We will keep trying though....

Youtube Version of piece