Question Four

Question Four by naima mebchour

Question Three

Question Two (Powerpoint Presentation)

Question One

Evaluation, written form

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

General stuff about video

Our video was based around conceptual ideas, having large amounts of symbolism which either related directly to the song lyric in verbatim (for example, walking past the fatburger, playing the song on the phone) or to what the lyric means.  Having symbolism in the video allowed for the viewer to piece together the story and emotions that the song was trying to convey.

My case study of Paradise by Coldplay is a heavy influence on the overall aesthetic of this video, using a costume to mask who the protagonist of the video is and adding the underlying theme of isolation and being out of place. This case study is mostly a narration, not having too many signs of overt symbolism which, while it is effective, is not the type of video my team and I wanted to produce. Having conceptual and surreal elements which tell a story allows the viewer to interpret different things in a way which they see fit, rather than the video having one set meaning. A further inspiration to the video concept was the film Donnie Darko in which there are heavy themes of obscurity and the main character sees a bunny. This had a clear relation and influence on our music video.

Narratively speaking, the structure of our music video is non-linear. The scenes show the protagonist in different places with no real indication of how or when he got there. This works to add to the theme of the video. However, a clear storyline is not necessarily needed as the viewer focuses more on the protagonist and how much he stands out rather than the scenery. 

Postmodernism

Our video was very experimental and this matched the genre of the song as it is quite an alternative genre that features many different aspects of music rather than simply falling under the category of ‘rap’. This links with Goodwin’s idea of genre related style and also shows continuity between our video and chosen song. 

Camera

There are a variety of shots used in our music video. In the opening chorus there is a mix of shots ranging from medium shots to cutaways. Using this range of shots allows for the viewer to be immersed in what is going on and to also straight away have questions for what is happening.

The camera is kept stationary throughout the whole video. Having the camera move in a shot to either track the artist or show surroundings would break the storyline.This challenges conventions of the genre of our chosen song as usually in rap the camera moves to track the artist, either as they're lip syncing or moving through their surroundings in the shot.

Editing

During the editing process we made sure to line the lyrics up with the different shots and visuals we had filmed. The first chorus of the song is accompanied with shots that are edited to match the beat of the song. It's edited to create a flipped version that you first see, this is done to give the viewer something more to look at rather than just a plain shot that lasted 4/5 seconds each. 

We made sure that the each shot was cut to match up with the lyrics said. For example, at 0:33 the shot is edited to match up with the sound of a door closing which is included in the song.

Print Products

For my print products I wanted to create something that was equally as confusing and experimental as our video. This is because of the fact that the products such as posters are the first thing that most people will see when first coming across our video. Having a sense of confusion in the print products makes the viewer feel curious and they will want to go search the video and find out more about the bunny costume and the video.

The majority of case studies and research done while looking at CD cases and posters was done within the rock genre. This is due to the fact that rock music generally has a darker aesthetic and meaning behind what you see. This related directly to our video and print products so it made sense to look through rock albums. This will also allow it to appeal to a wider audience rather than just people that listen to rap/hip hop.

Question Two: How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

Altogether, our video and print products are consistent in the style and overall aesthetic. Our video features the scenery that I have used on the inside of my CD case and the bunny is featured on the cover and on the poster of my print products. This gives a sense of unity that ties it all together and flows well. Particularly in the themes and imagery of my products

In my poster, I have chosen to feature the bunny as it will give the person looking at it a glimpse of the video and they will want to know more. Furthermore, my poster features some reviews of the song. This will catch the viewer's attention and, as it has positive reviews, they'll be more inclined to look up the video and form their own opinion of it. This shows that the poster and video both work to give the video more attention.

When thinking about how I would extend my products if they were operating in the real world, I would use various social media sites to further promote the video to a wider audience. Websites such as Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr and Facebook would allow for the video to be noticed more frequently through people being able to easily share it to their own followers. The use of social media among the general population has greatly increased in the past years and this is an advantage.

Question Three: What have you learned from your audience feedback?

With the use of audience feedback, we have been able to further develop our idea and understand what it is that makes our video appealing.

In our initial pitch, our ideas were very vague and we knew that we wanted our video to be very conceptual and abstract compared to the majority of our peers who wanted a more performance based video. This allowed our video to stand out amongst the other pitches and our classmates had a very positive reception to our ideas. However, once we were asked some questions about the meaning of certain things such as the bunny suit, my team and I came to the realization that we need to add in heavier symbolism and some context which relates to the song as well as our idea.

Once showing a rough edit of our video to our peers we had gotten very positive feedback. This gave my team and I the confidence that our video was going in the right direction and motivated us to continue with our idea. The audience reaction to the final scene of the video was the most impactful. As they hadn’t been expecting the video to lead to such a dramatic scene it created a visual and audible reaction throughout the class, which is what we intended to do while filming that particular scene. The audience also weren’t expecting this scene as in most cases, videos tend to have a relatively happy ending to the narrative but our final scene was quite the opposite.

In the final screening of our video we decided to gather friends and have them watch the music video. They all commented on the editing at the start of the video and how it went well with the beat of the song and the scenery. Much like with the rough cut screening, our friends were very much entranced by the final scene and the majority of them had commented on the fact that it left them thinking about the video as they didn’t know what happened to the bunny after he walked into the water. One shot they also liked was the one near the beginning of the first chorus of the bunny laying in the bathtub with Christmas lights.

When pitching our ideas for our print products, our class seemed to have a positive view that our products would fit with our overall theme of our video. This is what we were aiming for as we wanted to make sure all of our individual products went well together.

Question Four: How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

Many of my skills had developed in the process of both making the video and digi packs. While filming the video, I had learned to become more comfortable with both the camera and tripod, learning to maneuver with them in busy places without inconveniencing anyone that is trying to pass by. Furthermore, my team and I have greatly improved our editing skills. Neither of us had ever used the editing software provided by the college and so when we first started it was quite hard to get to grips with everything. However, as time went on we both became much more confident with what we were doing and we even attempted to add more experimental styles of editing rather than just keeping it at a regular cutting rate. The filming and editing was split up evenly throughout our team, ensuring that we both got a chance to film and edit and that we were both happy with the finished results. Working in a group further allowed me to develop my skills in communication and organisation.

For my print products, my main case studies were The Black by Asking Alexandria, Chasing Ghosts by The Amity Affliction and Camp by Childish Gambino. These case studies were a big inspiration in the aesthetic of my final print products. The first two case studies fall into the rock genre as the meaning behind them fit well with the overall theme of our video and the appearance of these album covers also align with our video idea. Using websites such as YouTube and Google to further research these albums and other rock music albums is what helped to give me a wider understanding of what I could possibly do with my own album and poster. Using another genre to inspire the look of my CD case gives it a unique style as usually, hip hop or rap albums follow a similar style. This means that my CD and poster will stand out against them.

Prior to making the final print products, I had used software such as Photoshop to plan my layout and give me a clearer idea of how I wanted it to look. This caused me to grow more confident when creating things in Photoshop, rather than simply editing.

When planning the filming for our video, we used pre production documents that have been made accessible to us through Moodle. These documents (recces, storyboards, risk assessments etc.) are what allowed us to carefully plan our time and make sure everything ran smoothly during the filming process and we didn’t waste any time.

Question 1 Draft (Incomplete)

General stuff about video

My video was based around conceptual ideas, having large amounts of symbolism which either related directly to the song lyric in verbatim (for example, walking past the fatburger, playing the song on the phone) or to what the lyric means.  Having symbolism in the video allowed for the viewer to piece together the story and emotions that the song was trying to convey.

My case study of Paradise by Coldplay is a heavy influence on the overall aesthetic of this video, using a costume to mask who the protagonist of the video is and adding the underlying theme of isolation and being out of place. This case study is mostly a narration, not having too many signs of overt symbolism which, while it is effective, is not the type of video I wanted to produce. Having conceptual and surreal elements which tell a story allows the viewer to interpret different things in a way which they see fit, rather than the video having one set meaning. A further inspiration to the video concept was the film Donnie Darko in which there are heavy themes of obscurity and

Narratively speaking, the structure of my music video is non-linear. The scenes show the protagonist in different places with no real indication of how or when he got there. This works to add to the theme of the video. However, a clear storyline is not necessarily needed as the viewer focuses more on the protagonist and how much he stands out rather than the scenery. 

Postmodernism

My video was very experimental and this matched the genre of the song as it is quite an alternative genre that features many different aspects of music rather than simply falling under the category of ‘rap’. This links with Goodwin’s idea of genre related style and also shows continuity between our video and chosen song. 

Camera

There are a variety of shots used in my music video. In the opening chorus there is a mix of shots ranging from medium shots to cutaways. Using this range of shots allows for the viewer to be immersed in what is going on and to also straight away have questions for what is happening.

The camera is kept stationary throughout the whole video. Having the camera move in a shot to either track the artist or show surroundings would break the storyline.This challenges conventions of the genre of my chosen song as usually in rap the camera moves to track the artist, either as they're lip syncing or moving through their surroundings in the shot.

Editing

During the editing process I made sure to line the lyrics up with the different shots and visuals we had filmed. The first chorus of the song is accompanied with shots that are edited to match the beat of the song. It's edited to create a flipped version that you first see, this is done to give the viewer something


I made sure that the each shot was cut to match up with the lyrics said. For example, at 0:33 the shot is edited to match up with the sound of a door closing which is included in the song.

CD Product and Poster complete

CD Progress 3

This is the progress I have made on my CD packaging for the track used in my video. The CD is the main source of colour as it is what contains the actual song and I want the attention to be on that.

CD Progress 2

This is the progress I have made so far on my CD cover (front and back). I havent made a decision on the type of font i want so the one pictured will probably not be on the final product.

CD Cover progress 1

Here is what I have created so far for my CD case cover, the font will probably be changed as im not sure this particular one reflects the mood of our video.

Music Video - Final

CD Case Studies (3)

This album is by Asking Alexandria. I chose this as one of  my case studies because I liked the fact that they used masks to symbolise what the artwork means rather than just using illustrations or clear photos of people.

The inside of the CD case had a little bit of colour (the actual CD was a bright red). I would like to implement this to my own CD design as i think the black and white would add a mysterious vibe to it while the inside would show and reflect how the video has some areas which are brightly coloured and stand out.


The back is a less contrasted black and white compared to the front. This muted colour makes the front stand out more when comparing the two images. This isn't something which i would include in my own design however, i can appreciate how it differs and adds something new when looking at the album.

I also like the texture of the images. Rather than having a hard plastic case, it's printed on cardboard and has a rough texture to it when you pick it up and actually touch it.

Our second case study was an album by The Amity Affliction called Chasing Ghosts. We chose this because it has clear images with a forest type of scenery and the whole album is very conceptual and narrative, much like our own video. The whole CD packaging tells a story, particularly the booklet inside. The narrative of this album is of depression, suicide and these topics have a naturally dark theme.The images which are shown throughout the booklet show this in a very clear and blunt way which is very impactful on the person looking at it. We wanted to portray a similar sort of atmosphere with our one, focusing on trying to convey confusion and isolation.

Another case study we looked at was by Childish Gambino, our artist. The album is called Camp and, much like the last case study, features images of a forest on the cover. We chose this as our case study as it shows us the type of CD covers that our artist has used in the past and it also ties in with our own video concept since a forest is a big part of our music video. We are planning to use the forest in our back album cover due to the fact that it is the bunny's natural habitat.

Studio Shoot Call Sheet - CD and Advert Shoot

Wednesday 14th, 2:30PM

Long exposures will be used when taking photographs

Rough Cut Feedback

After showing my classmates the rough cut video my team and i had made, we got some feedback from them.

29/11/2016

My team and I had a meeting talking about our CD case. We have looked at varying artists and their albums to give us some ideas on what we can do. We looked at Childish Gambino's album titled Camp which shows photographs of a forest and this fits with our theme as we have featured a forest as scenery in our music video. This is a possible background that we will include in our CD case however, we have also thought about changing it and making the studio a place to do our shoots to have a clean and clearer view on the bunny. Long exposures may be used in our shoot to give a blurred look to the photos and show motion, this will portray the confusion that we have in our video.

My team and I will discuss this in more detail.

notes:

set costume on fire for back pane
long exposures
bunny costume
studio

Editing Progress

This is the progress that my team and i have made with the editing of our video

Storyboards

Risk Assessments

Risk Assessment for Epping Forest

One thing which could be a potential risk is that the weather could be really bad. This is a risk because if it rains, the camera could possibly get wet and therefore be damaged. Also it can affect our actor and crew. To resolve this, we have taken the precaution of checking the weather beforehand and also making sure we are fully prepared for rain (for example, bringing an umbrella to protect the camera and bringing appropriate clothing).

Another risk that we could run into while recording in Epping Forest is that while shooting the last scene where the bunny walks into the water, it will be extremely cold. This is an issue for the actor as he will need to get warm immediately. To avoid anything from happening as a result of this scene, we have taken the action of bringing extra clothes and a heating pad to make sure our actor doesn't get too affected by it.

Risk Assessment for God's Own Junkyard

While shooting in God's Own Junkyard we could run into the risk of having a passerby trip on the tripod as it is a very small space. To avoid this we will make sure to leave as much space as possible for people to make their way around us and we will also look ahead of time to check what times they are least busy and make sure to shoot then.

Risk Assessment for Central London shoots

The weather could also be an issue while shooting in central London. To prevent any damage we will do the same as we will while shooting in Epping Forest and take an umbrella to protect the camera from damage.

Recces - Photographs taken by Micaela

Epping Forest

This will be the location near the end of our music video, it will symbolise the area which the bunny feels he belongs and is meant to be.

Brick Lane

This place will be the main scenery in our music video as it is somewhere a bunny is not supposed to be, which will convey a feeling of confusion and being out of place in somewhere that most people feel normal. This will also show the isolation that is in the song we have chosen, as the artist has felt isolated from his friends/family because of his own actions.

10/10/2016

My team and I have completed our storyboards for the music video. We have a total of 30 scenes however we will be adding more to it as we record. We will begin shooting as soon as we have all of our props together. We have also emailed the record label to ask for permission to use the song and make a video for it, evidence of this is published on my blog.