Monday, 26 April 2010

Final Magazine Advert




Here is my magazine cover ( late uploading), i have left space for tour dates etc. I used a band performance photo to keep with the promotion and atmosphere of live performance i also stretched the Indigo Lights logo to make it appear to be in the sky, i experimented with the idea of 'looking to the sky' before in my CD design, this represents a beacon for people to follow and gives it an epic mood. I formed this idea around the lyrics 'Where do we run?', this could be interpreted as a generation looking for a new direction, in a creative and social sense. I have purposefully left off the date because i want it to be enigmatic and act as a teaser so the audience are intrigued and pursue the product.

Wednesday, 14 April 2010

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

An moprtant element i wanted to include in my video was contrast in order to poke fun at genres and fuse the media-induced events and the characters mindset. I directed my main character to be fully aware of the camera and the fact that he was in a music video in order to bring an element of fun and informalitty. I however wanted to replicate some industry cliche's such as shots of the character singing right down the lens to the audience, this appears in such videos as Bob Hoskins version of 'Shiela' by Jamie T. I like this technique because i find it brings an intimate emotion to the lyrics and character because of eye contact and closeness.





Andrew Goodwin
Dancing in the Distraction Factory (1992, Routledge)
Here are examples of how i have met Adrew Goodwins ideas about 'what makes a music video'
1. Music videos demonstrate genre characteristics (eg stage performance in metal video, dance routine for boy/girl band).
-I used Indie clothing, Guitars for live performances from similar genres bands as the Kooks.
2. There is a relationship between lyrics and visuals (either illustrative, amplifying, contradicting).
-I based the whole narratve around the lyrics however I created surreal scenes that amplified the ordinary narrative and drove the piece into a non-digetic surrounding.
3. There is a relationship between music and visuals (either illustrative, amplifying, contradicting).
-During the guitar solo i cut the shots quickly to bounce off of the sound of the repeating guitar section, i also showed the characters emotions differently based on the tonality of the music, for example when the music becomes upbeat he would become happy as if the audio was his flowing emotions across the timeline of the video.
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 (a visual style).
-I included many close ups and reaction shots to establish the character
5. There is frequently reference to the notion of looking (screens within screens, telescopes, etc) and particularly voyeuristic treatment of the female body.
-The fish eye lense effect shows the concentration and entrapment of the event, this directs audience attention. I treated the female character fairly equal and neutral with costume, i however directed the other character to treat her stereotypically and as if she were a prize to be won. This isnt a mainstream video so I steered clear of the more R&B genre treatment of women sexually.
6. There is often intertextual reference (to films, TV programmes, other music videos, etc).
I made a subtle reference to the jazz club genre, i however wanted to create something new and concentrated on references to cliche's in other genres.

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

For the CD cover I drew inspiration from the early CD casings for 'ACDC' because they were a band know for their quality of live performances, not unlike Indigo Lights. I wanted to create something semi-iconic as a front cover like the great archetypal and innovative 'Pink Floyd' covers, all of the symbolisms seemed to fall into place as i experimented with the imagery and I began trying to make it something alien in relation to some of the meaningless or voyeuristic covers of the present. I made most of my creative ideas based around the aspect of live performance, i echoed this by using past performance photos for the inside and back covers. This also added to the informality and persuades people to expierience the band in live concert. I think the sound of the band. Jean Baudrilliads' theorys about 'hyperrealism' was something i was drawn to because of my dramatic background and my love of symbolism. Baudrilliads; hyperrealism theorys involve the ability to distinguish between real and false when presented with information, i decided to show a representation or an exaggeration of a situation and so also decided to create an un-obvious CD cover.

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Peer assessment- Matt Mason


Because of poor quality it can be hard to read the questions so here they are again
-What did you think of the music video you just saw?
-What would you change about this Video?
-Do you feel the visuals worked well with the song?
-How can this video be improved?
-Where can you imagine this video being shown?
-What does this video do for the bands image?

From the feedback i have received, i feel that the project was a success. However I do agree with the point about band members and maybe including all of them, but there were geological complications and organisation would have had to be sound or may even be impossible with the time-frame. However i would have liked to make the piece look a lot more proffessional (with equipment etc) even though the purposeful ammature technique was praised  as a spoof technique. Overall  the feedback i have recieved has been possitive, however i feel things such as camera quality could be improved, but i am a slight perfectionist with these type of creative tasks and keep comparing it to professional quality productions.

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

Research

The primary reasearch i did involved looking at existing products i with elements i would aspire to create in my music video, such as the symbolistic connotations shown in electro-pop band 'Hot Chip'. However this was not the genre of music i had chosen even tho i still think of it as a successful video. So i used Youtube to research other videos such as 'The Arctic Monkeys' and filmography by director Nima Nourizadeh. I also came across an interesting short film done in reverse and found some of the effects achieved quite interesting.
I researched into imovie products such as 'imovie 09' using Gizmodo but later decided against using the software because of lack of visual effects and i would not be able to gain access to it by a good time.
I used a website called 'poll-junkie' to create an audience research questionare, however i failed to gain a wide number of people to take the questionare, this in mind i still gained a concludeable idea of what was expected from my target audience.http://www.polljunkie.com/KAg7Ai/View5194.aspx

Planning

Planning the ancillary task involved experimenting with images given to me by the band and thinking about messages i wanted the artwork to convey. i did this using 'Photo impact' (a PC alternative to Photo shop which i would later use).




Monday, 29 March 2010

Shots explained

I filed this collection of opening scenes using the 'nightshot plus' feature on my camera, this created a dull and slightly distorted colour i wanted to highlight the characters emotions (boredome). The character is central and also is the most promenant, this straight away causes the audience to focus on him, this shot also goes on for roughly 17 seconds. The background sound involves people talking about football (a stereotypical topic of conversation often used just for the sake of talking), i asked my actors to do this to alienate the main character and cause the audience to relate to the on screen events. This can relate to the practices of a theatre practitioner, Bertolt Brecht. Brecht experimented with the ideas of representing reality and this is where i drew a lot of influence for the stylisation of my piece.

I used different coloured shirts to represent opposite social standings and egos.
Red- Danger and agression (stereotypical colour representation/easy for audience to grasp)
Yellow- Hippy character, happy, non-threatening
Blue/Purple- Neutral compared to other colours, spiritual and deep
These colours are opposite to each other on the colour spectrum and so reflect the representation of the characters.
In this scene i used a reverse effect. I planned and instructed for the characters to act the scene in reverse eg. jumping out of the tree to then later give the impression of jumping into the tree.
However with greater planning this could be more successful timing wise, i had to use speeding up effects in order to time events with music and so in some places it looks a little unrefined. Having said that the fluctuation of speed added to my 'daft' intentions.


"You left me with nothing"- i Purposefully used a location that would cast a shadow to highlight loneliness ('me and my shadow'). This also makes his prescence definite and solid as the plain wall he is up against. The wall represents the 'end of the line' and a blockage in his life, i feel this shot was successful with the addition of his facial expression-melancholy. I reduced the saturation to indicate his slow fade from his 'rose tinted' world he is a a result of love.
The yellow character is forcing the blue character off focus because of his promenance in the frame, this ties in with the narrative, another example of my love of symbolism connotations. His facial expression also adds the informal humour i aimed for throughout and layers his character. 
Here is a representation of the mass youth idealogies and his response (frustration). This is also a clash of the coloured shirts and their personalities. The two secondary characters represent physically his annoyance with people shouting about their happiness in his face (metaphorically). This is possibly my favourite shot because it turned out almost exactly how i imagined in the storyboard stages. This is an exaggeration of a metaphor, these ideas often are used in my genre of Indie music videos such as Vampire Weekend.
This shot symbolises his attempt to enjoy himself and go with the flow of everyone else, he reverts back to a past era where he was happy on his own, this also brings in an element of performance usually needed for a music video to establish the artists talent. The two  cones frame him but also provide a warning, a slight threatening omen to the future. The solar flare brings him back into the 'rose tinted' world of cliche' happiness
The three characters are here in syncronisation, this represents a time when they all got along before the girl was introduced to the three of them, the black and white after effect shows the flashback and contrast between the climate of the present (bright colours). I put the lead character in large glasses to hint at a 'Jazz' genre, which is a target of humour for my target audience, also this shows a contrasting genre- His relationship started a new genre era, this also promotes and glorifies the music genre.
This shots' narrative speaks for itself and acts as a climax for the events, he is also dragged into a sort of mental realm, i used this idea because a lot of people can relate to his feelings about his situation and would like to shoot lightning out of their fingers towards their ex-love interest. Another not so subtle element of humour. I do like the effect of an ammature lightning effect and i could justify the use of it in accordance with the Genre but i would like to make this video with  more advanced technlogy such as psycodelic computer effects to show the transition into his 'evil world'.

T
his is the final punchline and ends in an abrupt blackout cut, this  is to keep the audience suspended in the video whilst the sound lingers on. He is shown frozen with fear and shock, accompanied by a quick zoom, this visually emits a panic for the viewer and again fuses the narrative, music and visuals. In the final few seconds the saturation drys away to hint at his sudden white complexion brought on by fear, i find this shot to be visually successful and humorous because of the sharp changes between frames.

The Video!


For some reason there is a long trail of nothing at the end of the video so obviously i will have to cut this out.