Task 3 – What you learned from your audience feedback?

Task 2 with script - How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

Richard dyers star image-  Richard dyer studied the idea that stars area a construction created through the media via music videos as well as websites and digipaks. Dyer said that stars are often groomed by record companies to appeal to certain audiences, whether to a mass market or a niche audience. Dyer also found that stars are represented to audiences in a certain way to make them seem both ordinary and extraordinary, through different media texts such as music video. Stars can be relatable to the audience without having to be too present, yet still maintaining a connection with their audience, which allows fans to identify with them, yet also see them as superior due to their fame and talent.

In our music video our aim is create an ambience of a 1990’s working class, student bedsit. The genre of music is indie rock, as well as Britpop. Henceforth, representing the same format of star image as artists such as Blue, Oasis and The Smiths. However, we believe our artists to be unique in that they are capable of combining the light rock music of ‘The La’s’ with the indie clothing attire. The elements which portray the working class aspect of the videos would be the modest size and interior elements of the flat. Using this image of coming from a working class background is an effective marketing regime, as it allows the majority of the audience to be able to relate to the band and it makes the band appear ‘just like a normal person’. The posters in which are presented on the set are also designed to illustrate what the target audience are also likely to be viewing. This is to increase the audience’s interest in the piece and also adds an element of realism to the piece as they would be realistic forms of media in which our band might use. Their style which is presented by their fashion, their hair and their emotions are similar to those artists in which we were attempting to emulate. We managed to maintain an authenticity with our digipak, we thought this type of artist would try to keep their Album artwork simple as they would try to give off the impression that they only care about the music and their not too commercialised. This is mirrored with the Crystal Moon website, whereby we tried to maintain a similar design in order to regenerate the same image.

The band members are positioned traditionally when performing, as in the drummer placed at the back, the singer up front and the two guitarists (one bass, one guitar) either side. This positioning shows aspects of the bands influences; for example bands such as: The Beatles, The Smiths and the Stone Roses all of whom are four piece male bands. There proxemics also go well with their movement which mimes that of those four piece bands, Crystal Moon are a bit more enthusiastic and this brings excitement to the audience and gives the audience an idea of the bands personalities and gives the band members a warmth that the fans love and they enjoy watching the video and performance. the aspect of the band playing on their instruments in the video adds to the star image that they are an organic band and they have all taken part in creating the music.  The way in which the band are dressed in 80/90s clothing gives the audience a feeling of them being in the past which means that they are not accessible in this present year, yet because of the nature of the narrative and the band members being such normal guys, the audience feel like they are accessible but because they are from the 80s/90s they are not. The props of the telephone and television add to that star image of a retro/vintage band and give the audience an even more drifted feel. The romantic aspect of the video widens its target market to men and women.

In our music video we had some use of music stardom by the use of the set we were to present the characters as a musical band. With the bands look of a 90’s rock group we were able to replicate the feeling of the 1990’s along with the older props like the old TV with the VHS tapes.

 

For our Digipack we had used a very basic design for the cover, by having a singular couch it demonstrates the simplicity of the band while the inside of the album it mirrors a pizza box design with the pizza delivery menu to relate to the video and a sort of grease stain to present the album with the lead singer of the band. This is all to prove that the band is organic.

The website also reinforces the star image of our band. We’ve established them as simple, calm organic performers. The website is quite minimalistic with a simple yet effective font used throughout and not too many colours. This is similar to the front of our album cover and merchandise. The font helps people remember our band due to the unique font that we used throughout the digipak and album cover. This image is then reinforced by the black and white image of the band on the front cover of our album.

In addition to that we are selling our band as ordinary who like interact with the audience. Therefore we’ve put Facebook and twitter links on our website so that we illustrate that our band is reachable and our fans an communicate with them. Our website includes constant information on our band which includes tour dates and their everyday activity allowing our audience to connect with the band.

There are also galleries of our band from the shoot where they are wearing the same clothes that they were wearing in the actual music video. This further reinforces the star image and closes the gap between the audience and the band.

We did not make a contact form deliberately. The problem is that younger people now choose to communicate through social media sites. We therefore suggest that our audience is of 15-25 year olds.

Task 1 - In what ways do your media products use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Media Task 1 (Draft 2)

Post-production evaluation

The post-production process is vital when constructing a media product. Post production refers to the technology and processes which occur between the principle shoot and completion of a media product.  Post production was a key aspect of making my music video. We had to ensure that all of the post production elements were perfect especially when cutting our music video. My developed skills meant that I could use post production for finishing, the rough cut and visual effects ensuring that my video reached it creative potential.

When editing my rough cut I used a programme called final cut pro which edits in a timeline format. This allows you to have a number of channels open simultaneously enabling you to cut different images at one time.  We used a complex cut, taking a more creative approach which was to stack up our shots and then use the rhythm of the track to determine the cutting points using markers and then cutting through the various tracks to make a performance cut. The main tool that we used here was called Blade and was key for cutting the shots without affecting the shot on the layer. We used Multi-layer channels driven by rhythmic editing whilst keeping the form of continuity editing. I used more complex transitions such as fading which made it look aesthetically nice and looked like a professional media product.

Visual effects are undoubtedly a significant factor in ensuring the positive outcome of a media product and we used complex visual effects for our project. We used a process called motion tracking to place images behind the shots where we used green screen. Motion tracking is when you get the computer to focus on an object to stay on the screen. You then tell the picture to stay through the shot so that it looks look however the shot itself is not com. Examples of when we used this is when we captured major movie moments such as the titanic drawing scene and Ursula Andres coming out of the water. We used Chromo key to cut out all of the green and then put what we want behind them we developed a key frame through the motion tracking. The key frame was the pictures that we found. An example of the picture that I used was a subway route for the Marylyn Munroe shot. We wanted it to look as realistic as possible to reach ultimate creativity.

Finishing is a vital part of any media product, when the videos are finished they go through a finishing process to go through the colour so to give it uniformity. You want the scenes to blend through the colour. This includes going over the saturation the exposure. I looked at different colour blends so to  give a flowing video. I wanted to minimise all of the different colours so that you have a coherent, aesthetically pleasing view. I used the programme 'Final Cut Colour' which enables me to adjust the colour signatures and bring all of the scenes closer together. There is also a process called grading which alters the texture of . This is where is there is romantic aesthetic then you can put a filter over it to give it a blurred effect. If you want an old look you can add grain etc.

To conclude, it is clear that post production systematically improves a media product, developed skills in post-production allowed the creation of a more successful product outcome. The use of more developed skills in post-production skills improved the quality and creativity of our rough cut allowing us to create a complex cut. We took a creative approach which was to stack up our shots and then use the rhythm of the track to determine the cutting points using markers. A complex editing style was the key to the success of our video simply to convey the narrative and to make sure that the secial effects and the visual effects looked good.

Copyright letter to record company

 

 

Dear Go Discs records,

We are a group of A Level students working on an A Level project for a qualification in Media Studies. We are writing to request permission to use the following track as part of this project:

The La’s- “There She Goes”

With your permission the track would be used as the accompaniment to a short form video that is made purely for assessment purposes and will have no commercial usage. The video will be viewed only by members of the school community and the assessor of the examination board.

The artist and the copyright holder will of course be fully recognised in the pre-production and evaluation material that accompanies the project. We can also include a full copyright notice if required both in the planning material and on the video itself.

Kind regards,

Storyboard

Rough Cut