A2 Media Studies

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

For my music video, I ensured that I used several codes and conventions that are found in real ska/punk/rock music videos, which include the artist/band playing their instruments, plenty of lip syncing and having close up shots as well as having lots of fill shots included throughout the video. I used Andrew Goodwin's music video theories and applied them to my music video.

1. Music video's demonstrate genre characteristics/conventions (e.g. stage performance in metal videos, dance routine for boy/girl band)

I chose to make a video for a local ska/punk/rock band called 'Lizzard Channel'. They are a 6 man band including guitarists, trombonists and a drummer so the conventions within my music video had to reflect this, as the video features all members of the band playing their instruments I feel I have captured all of the sounds produced in the song and portrayed them visually.The locations I used within my music video were similar to those of 'arcade fire' and 'foster the poeple' music video's which I looked at during the research stage of this project. I combined live performances with recording studio footage as well as other random beach fill shots which were appropriate to the song, I have only seen this done before within the 'foster the people' music video for 'pumped up kicks', but they are an indie band therefore I feel I have developed this layout of locations and visuals of a indie genre music video and challenged them into a ska/punk/rock music video.

2. There is a relationship between lyrics and visuals (either illustrative, amplifying, contradicting)

I reflected and amplified the lyrics of the song visually. An example of this can be seen around 0.45 when the lead singer says "This is who I am, This is what I look like" whilst the audience has a close up shot of the singer repeating these words. Another example could be around 1.35 when the lead signer is walking towards the camera, clearly wearing different clothing and at a different location, the lyrics say "Here I am, six years on ...". Also the majority of the lyrics are being sung on screen by the band, therefor help amplify the lyrics to the audience as they are not only being heard, but also visually seen.

However, I do feel that my music video challenges the visual relationship between the band and the lip syncing because around 2.00 I use a small child to act as the lead singer. This is not seen in most ska/punk/rock music video's and I have only seen it done once before on a 'Black Keys' song called 'Tighten Up' where little children lip sync the lyrics throughout the music video.

Above is my little actor pretentding to be the main vocalist, I got my idea from The Black Keys video (below), a blues/rock genre of music band.

3. There is a relationship between the music and the visuals
The song I made a video for is very upbeat and includes a lot of different instruments. I feel that my quick edits reflect the fast tempo of the song and help keep the audience visually interested because I have edited the music video to the beat of the song.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=76iZ36EQZbc&feature=relmfu

I also feel my video illustrates the sound of specific instruments such as the visual representation of the trombonist playing his guitar at the start of the song, you see his fingers playing the chords while you can hear the note of the trumpet changing.

4. The demands of the record label will include the need for lots of close ups of the artists and the artist may develop motifs which reoccur across their work (a visual style)
I have filmed a lot of close up shots of the band members making them instantly recognisable to their fans, I captured them playing their instruments at live performances and when they are chilling out. Giving people an insight into what they get up to during their free time. However, my video does not include a motif. Instead, I filmed my video as if it were a picture collage, I wanted to film as many locations and memories as possible and place them all in one video therefore it can be argued my video challenges the conventions of some real media products. I chose not to do this because when I asked a member of Lizzard channel what they wanted within their music video they said 'want to show what we can do, how we perform and play, what we are like ... its about our friends, who we are, showing where we live, base around the splash, bit of a live performance' - words taken from my 'Lizzard Channel Interview' video on my youtube channel.

I have created this video to illustrate the similarities between my final music video and real media products which i looked at during the research stage of this project. I have done this by taking screen grabs of various video's and placed the similar shots next to my final music video to compare. - foster the people 'pumped up kicks', arcade fire 'ready to start', wavves 'king of the beach', foo fighters ''

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Baba0iY92eY&feature=relmfu

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

The combination of my final music video and the ancillary tasks are very effective as I have all the same images used within my digipack and poster as my actual music video, therefore all my products are relevant to one and other. During the construction stage of my music video I took photo's while filming my band, this was made possible because the Canon 7D allows you to film and take photo's at the same time. Although I have used around 12 different photo's throughout my digipack and poster it is clear that they were all taken whilst on location filming my music video which keeps the same style and does not introduce any randomness into my tasks.

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

The similarities between my music video and the digipack/poster would be that I took my photo's the same days I was filming. Therefore the imagery/locations and costumes used in the main product and ancillary tasks are the all the same and I also used the same brush effect throughout my digipack to create a reoccurring theme.

I used the same font within my conventional digipack and poster because the familiar font will will catch the eye of the consumer. They can then relate the 'Orator Std' font, that I downloaded off '1001freefonts.com', to Lizzard Channel and their products. I created the same effect as 'Example' did on the front cover of his digipack, I placed a black box behind the title of the band to help make the letters stand out. I have included the 'Example' album cover which I got my initial digipack idea from, using multiple images to make up a front cover. I added a 'screwed up' paper effect, which I downloaded from 'brusheezy.com', on the front cover of my digipack to challenge the 'Example' front cover, I carried this effect throughout my digipack to help associate this convention with my product.

It is obvious that after watching my music video and looking at the images on the front cover of my digipack, that all the shots have been seen before. This makes my final products very effective as they all reflect each other and make the ancillary tasks more relatable to my final music video.

3. What have you learned from your audience feedback?

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

"To gather feedback during the research stage of this project, I used ‘surveymonkey’ to create an online survey. I was able to send a link via facebook to collect results. I could then analyse the results gathered from my online survey to construct a key demographic. These results would become very helpful to my final product as I was able to understand what my key demographic would expect to see within a music video of my genre. To gather feedback from the band members of Lizzard Channel during the construction stage of my A2 music video. I uploaded my 1^st and 2^nd draft to youtube as a private video. This allowed me to send links of my draft videos to the band members without any of their fan’s seeing the unfinished product. From this they gave me individual feedback through Facebook and told me what they liked and didn't like so I could go back and alter part of the video. After I had finished editing my final music video, I uploaded it to YouTube as a public video. In order for me to get a more generalised unbiased public feedback where I was able to gather comments and monitor how many times my production had been viewed, as well as the amount of likes and dislikes it had received. I then used social networking sites twitter and facebook to promote and broadcast my music video. I made a status asking for feedback and also shared a link of the video on the Lizzard Channel fan page; this gave me a feel for its popularity among their fans and my target audience."

Audience feedback through Facebook, as you can see it looks very positive!

Youtube - amount of views, likes and dislikes and some positive comments

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

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xc94ekWskp4

I used search engines such as Google during the research and planning section of this project in order to view artist’s websites, posters and digipacks, this was a key piece of media technology, as I needed to gather information about past and current real media products. YouTube was also a key website for my research as I researched artists that fit my punk rock music genre and I could easily watch their music video’s to gather information and idea’s of what to include in my final product.

Throughout this whole project I have been uploading screen grabs, video’s and photo’s onto my blog, I used a free website called ‘Blogger’ which I have been familiar with from my AS level, the YouTube embedding tool situated on the website was very helpful as I was able to quickly share video’s from YouTube onto my blog. My YouTube channel has been used constantly to upload any video footage I have created throughout this project. During the planning stage I created an animatic using the programme iMovie, as it is a quick and easy to use piece of editing software.

During the research stage I also used social networking sites like Facebook & twitter. I used Facebook to post my survey from survey monkey, which I made for target market research. I used twitter throughout my project to keep my teacher and classmates up to date as well as keeping up to date with them.

Throughout this project I have been using an iMac, which has entitled me to use many pieces of professional software. I used InDesign to construct my digipack and poster production, Photoshop for editing images as well as applications such as iCal for managing my time and iPhoto which has allowed me to upload and quickly edit photographs of my ancillary tasks. I also used websites such as ‘1001freefonts.com’ and ‘brusheezy.com’ to download fonts and brushes for free; this was very helpful for the construction stage of the ancillary tasks.

Finally the camera equipment, which I used to produce my music video, has obviously been very important. I used a Canon 7D to take photo’s for the ancillary tasks and video for my final music video. I have also used a tripod and tracking system to produce a smooth travelling shot within my video to make it look more professional.

After uploading my footage to my iMac I used the program 'compressor'. Which allowed me to compress my footage to a suitable size to work and use on my editing program. I have used Final Cut Pro and After Effects to edit my final music video. Without these pieces of software it would have been almost impossible to create my products to a high standard.

During some lessons we had the chance to use the crane equipment to improve our knowledge and technique of the subject.

It is clear from this short video clip how much I have used new media technologies throughout my work.