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

Final Product

Recording of how I used new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages of my music video

Script of our recording:

We found the band and song on our I-pods and researched them and other bands from YouTube for inspiration for the video for example, mystery jets.

Originally we painted this frame blue as we wanted to superimpose the band playing into the frame using the programme after effects, this is part of the post production stage and it is used to edit the video after we made the original cut.

We put this video together through final cut pro in which the first task was to create an animatic story board. Final cut pro is used to edit the digitised analogue footage that was collected and arrange the shots to create the desired narrative.

There were elements of the original song that we did not want, therefore we used a programme called wave pad to cut sections out of the song ready for the music to be played back for the lead to sing to (also known as playback).

We bought the brightly colourer tops for costumes using ecommerce to portray the fun loving star image of the band.

On the shoot day we took digital camera stills whilst the band was playing to incorporate into our CD cover and poster design. These were created in Photoshop CS4, a programme used for the manipulation of still images such as adding in arty effects to our poster.

This Andy Worhol-esk design was also created in after effects. We changed the colours of the boys using the hue/saturation tool and brightened up many of the shots to get rid of the lines in the set.

We originally intended to motion track the boys pulling faces in the frames, however due to time and technical issues this was not possible.

Once the video had been uploaded to our blogs and YouTube, feedback suggested our video had elements of originality viewers even uploaded our video to social networking sights such as face book as a form of viral marketing.

During the filming process video footage displayed above the set on a HD monitor, this enabled us to correctly frame each shot whilst setting the right exposure and focus.

We recorded each step of our process, research and planning, construction, post production and evaluation onto our web 2.0 blog pages. This enabled us to track our process and be aware of each of the steps and choices that we, made making sure they were correct decisions.

We evaluated our video and bands star image using power point presentations. These were shown to our focus group, after watching video, in order to generate feedback on our product.

Although we were not able to motion track the band pulling faces, we did however manage to motion track elements towards the end of our video such as the artist being hung up by the band, as well as the final shot of the band being framed.

Motion tracking is carried out in after effects and is a technique that is used to place chromakey images onto moving elements within a frame.
This is a good example of the way in which new technology allows us to produce sophisticated practical work in a way that wouldn’t of been possible 10 years ago.

Task 3 - What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Once completing the construction of our music video, it was time to evaluate whether or not the production of it had appealed to our audience members. One method of achieving this was through the use of ‘You Tube’ in which we posted our final video. Here, viewers where able to leave their comments anonymously which therefore meant that when analysing the viewers in terms of sectors of our target market, we did not in fact know whether the commented viewers where in fact in our target audience or not. This therefore provided a range of demographical feedback. Two examples left by viewers read,
“I really liked this video and the pop art theme. I think the strongest part of the video, is to do with editing the music (e.g. distinctive beats.) I also agree with the person before, just being picky but it would have been nice if the picture was landscape, but well done.”
Another comment left by an anonymous viewer read,
“I love the use of pop art and the Andy Warhol-esc style in the video. It is almost like the artists inspiration was the music you are listening to and the paintings she makes are a reflection of her thoughts around this music.”

These two comments enabled us to understand the viewer’s opinions of our strengths and weaknesses regarding our production as well as expressing their own intake as well as belief of the narrative within the video. This is reflected in the last comment in which the viewer believed the paintings were a reflection of her thoughts around the music. As the creators, this allows a new outlook as well as oppositional reading of the video.

Additionally to this, focus groups were carried out in which a random sample of 16-18 year olds were collected specifically collected within our target audience age in order to gain feedback upon their screening. I found this to be a beneficial process, as it allowed us to see not only the strengths and weaknesses of the performance video but also provided ideas of what they themselves would change if they were to do it again. The role of the artist was also questioned as I wanted to discover whether the views would have preferred, negotiated or oppositional readings to ours. When the screening was carried out, the main strength noted was the editing of the material, such as the accuracy of the lip syncing as well as the visually stylish popping of the band backwards and forwards, described by the viewers as “fitting in well with the style of the song. “ Additionally, when each frame was hung, the precision of blending between the imposed after effect image with the real black frames was appreciated by our focus group. Additionally to this, the ending was appreciated in terms of the frame were she walks back to stand with the boys, with one comment saying, “It added a professional look to the video with the surprise twist of the band hanging up the artist to finish it off.”

An all round main strength felt amongst the group, however, was the artistically stylish mise en scene of the piece in terms of the way the bright colours add to the mood of the video, e.g. bright yellows and greens connotes a joyful, fun loving band. The strengths mentioned were closely similar to mine as well as the aspects I found most enjoyable to watch and create within the video. Despite the strengths of the video, the focus group felt that weaknesses also played a part such as one focus group member suggesting that the narrative was difficult to comprehend at times, such as the reason behind the boys being painted. Moreover, when the artist walks back to group with the boys in the last shot, one member found the artists movement “to be a bit sluggish and therefore could be seen as unprofessional.” In terms a mutual weakness felt amongst our group, it was the appearance of the boys in terms of their age and size. They where described to look young and unsexy by the peers.

I found this to be a fatal blow to our video, as this comment came from a member of our female target audience and therefore did not appeal to her in terms of their music stardom of sexual magnetism. If this was to be felt amongst a large number of our female based audience this could reduce the number of albums sold dramatically. Having said this, others argued that a song such as ‘Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa’ did not need attractive older men as the song portrays a more youthful, fun, lovingness to the song in terms of their star image and in some circumstances plays to the bands advantage. For example, due to their young, unprofessional look this gives the star image of ‘being successful against the odds’ and therefore the band act as underdogs in the music industry which may potentially appeal to our target audience of 16-24 year olds as they are young people starting out in their carrier paths themselves.

I understand the weaknesses suggested and do agree in parts. I would also add that if I was to recreate this project again, I would have edited out the nails in the Andy Warhol pop art section as although small and insignificant detail I feel, the shot would have had a greater affect if the canvas had appeared on the wall without the look of hanging them up. This led me onto my next trail of thought for questioning the focus group ‘would you do anything differently if it was your video?’ One member stated the idea of locating the video in different sites for shots such as painting real walls in subways or on the street, providing a more diverse look to the video. Another proposition made was to have the band members dance more in order to portray their star image of a fun loving quirky band more as well as acting as their visual equivalent to the music. The idea of a close friendship came across by the band and was a preferred reading amongst the group, however they felt that although there were vast close ups of the lead singer, drummer and guitarist, there were not enough of the bass player and therefore this resulted in the feeling of a tight friendship of the group being lost among one member as they felt the bass player to be “left out.”

By proving more close ups of the bassist perhaps a greater unity and friendship could be portrayed to the viewers. In regard to my own feelings about carrying out the project again, I would not have the band members shake the frames once they pulled it to their face in the narrative. This previously intended to have imposed faces of the band pulling faces, which would have been created in after effects to then pull the frames down in order to look at their faces and shake them off. This narrative soon changed in the rough cut edit once we realised this would be time consuming and hard to complete in the time period. As a group we therefore made the decision to leave it the way it is. This has no created a problem for our video, however, as it appears to be framing their crotches which some members of the focus group found confusing to the narrative.

My next set of questions, led me onto exploring the encoding and decoding model for our music video. The idea believes that ‘Media’ texts are ‘encoded’ (both consciously and unconsciously) with the values of their producers who are generally seen as white, middle-class, men. However an audience is not made up exclusively of these groups and therefore different groups are likely to ‘read’ the text in different ways. This was where the idea of preferred, negotiated, oppositional and aberrant readings took part in our feedback for our targeted focus group.
Firstly, the preferred readings of the group were analysed, meaning the audience closely reflected our values regarding the video as well as accepting and agreeing with the concepts and ideas portrayed by us. An example of this is shown in our piece, were we wanted the artist who creates and hangs up framed images of the boys to be seen as idolising the band; however holding the twist at the end where the band hang up a frame of the artist therefore symbolising the band idolising the artist. This creates a preferred reading of the video, as the group suggested she was ‘godlike’ to the band with the members lusting over her attractiveness as if worshipping her.

This was in fact the effect we were looking for. Having said this, an oppositional reading occurred in which a meaning is created for the movement however it runs against the values of the producers and therefore the viewers do not accept or agree with the values of ours. This was the case for the same section in which a member of the focus group felt it to portray aspects of revenge in which the band members where taking revenge on the artist by hanging her up to see ‘how she liked it.’ It was also suggested that the artist painting the band acts as the creator for them such as the marketing director who invented them as a synthetic band who put them together in order to target different markets and appeal to a wide range of audiences. This goes against our original intention of portraying the boys as a fun loving, self nurtured organic band.

Negotiated readings were also carried out in which some values of ours were accepted; however others were not, forming a debate and negotiation amongst people. This was the biggest category in which the comments fell into as some ideas and values were accepted as well as new ones similar yet diverse were created. For example, one member of the audience believed that as she painted the boys they came to life more and more as well as making the art accessible by keeping it quirky and easy, therefore portraying the accessible quirky image of the band to the audience. This was where our pop art styled theme occurred in which Andy Warhol believed that everybody deserved 15 minutes of fame.

Additionally to this, the fact that all members of the band are part of the group is shown through the various close ups of the drummer and other members. This therefore demonstrates to the viewers that the song is not fixated around the lead singer but instead shows off all the bands talents e.g. instrumentals, providing a strong image of not only friendship but also unity and equality for the band which in effect will sell the entire band and not just the one lead singer.
Overall, I feel the feedback was successful in terms of the group having similar ideas and views of the video to us, proving the success to our main objectives and ideas of post production. In addition to the success of the overall narrative being understood in terms of representations and meanings, and as a group we took on the weaknesses expressed by the group and viewed it as constructive criticism for how to improve the project if carried out again.

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

Vampire Weekend Star Image Please Task 3

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

The painter in this video represents the artist and creator of the band. She is revealed to the audience at an early stage during an establishing shot of her art studio with the help of the mise en scene of paint to enforce her character. In some cases she could be viewed metaphorically as the marketing creator of the band who is adapting and sculpting the bands image to how the target audience wish them to be perceived. This allows a developed narrative to occur as the artist begins painting canvas, however soon develops to painting the bodies of the band members which are then revealed at the end. The fact that half naked boys appear in the video demonstrate that it is not conforming to the conventional sexually themes of using naked women in order to entice the opposing sex, however, instead use men which subsequently conform to the traditional image of attracting the opposing sex aimed at our female sector of our audience. An example of this in previous pop videos is Take Thats’ ‘Do what you like.’ Although this was meant to appeal to a gay target audience this is still trying to attract members for sexual intentions. Aspects such as these sell to alluring fans who intend to watch again and again. This was also the case for the artist, as we deliberately chose an attractive girl in order to attract the male targeted audience.




















During the editing of our video a fast paced ‘rhythmic’ montage was created and introduced providing a fragmental style, similar to that seen in a previous video called ‘Astronauts and All.’ This was particularly illustrated in our music video where the band members pop backwards and forwards during long shots in the chorus. These ‘pops’ intercut the movement using different camera movements as well as experimenting with tempo style to match the beat exactly; a visual equivalent to the music. We chose to portray our semantic elements in this syntactic form as it allowed us to break the rules of continuity when editing as well as enabling the video to become musically driven instead of by a linear narrative. Additionally to this, motifs and images such as the use of paint brushes and colour maintain the key ‘artist’ themes and therefore an aesthetically pleasing video is created for our target audience inviting them to become apart of the song. This is also the case in terms of a star image for the band, through close ups of faces giving an audience/ artist relationship including the instrumental close ups portraying their star like talents and qualities.
























This image symbolises the bands fun loving organic nature and mannerisms. Although they take their music seriously the image proves they still find time to have fun. This is demonstrated effectively through the image of the boys pulling faces in their frames. An audience member can relate to this and see themselves as being similar in their actions.
Dyer suggests that the star image is based upon two key paradoxes, firstly that of ordinariness and extraordinariness and secondly that of presence and absence. Their fun within the frames portray the bands ordinariness, however the band are also viewed as extraordinary in the sense that they are ‘not like us’ due to their star like image and talents. As a result the band are present by being on screen portraying actions viewers can relate to however they are also absent due to their abilities and talents which are perhaps unfamiliar to the audience. More over by having the semantic element of the band painted inside the frames this also indicates their organic and fun like nature as well as their artistic quirky manner making them accessible to their youthful target audience of 16-24 year olds.



























The Andy Warhol pop art style containing individual members of the band demonstrates an aesthetically stylish ‘artistic’ mise en scene for the audience, in terms of the saturation and exposure arrangements of colour. In order for our images to come to life I experimented with editing in adobe after effects, where by the canvas were originally painted and filmed with a blue screen background, inspiringly taken from a similar styled music video named ‘Bring me to life’ by Evanessence. Throughout this video, special effects such as CGI as well as a blue screen background is used. In our own video we used the same techniques to import the heads and lips into the individual framed canvas’ to create a unique cinematographic appearance. The image also helps promote the band as the faces of each member are seen therefore recognisable to their targeted audience sector. The unique artistic style of pop art also provides a light hearted entertainment within the music video and enables it to act as a product in its own right.


















At the end of this narrative sequence a twist occurs in which the band hold up a frame of the artist. This portrays a human like quality to the band as they appear to be admiring a ‘normal’ person, in other words not a famous person/artist. This allows the audience to relate to the video as it demonstrates that they themselves are able to attract these ‘extraordinary’ band members. This therefore creates an emotional connection between them. To a certain extent, this reinforces and adapts to the meaning of the song as it is about idolising a girl to be intimate with. This therefore creates a desire for the band, as young female teenagers wish to fill the girls shoes and therefore have believe that they are being directly asked the questions “can you stay up, to see the dawn.” This provides an open polysemic experience for the audience as each viewer will interpret the song in their own way, creating different perceptions of the same video. This instantly sells the band as it draws fans in to watch again and again to then later go onto buy the future records/albums of that band.







































The front cover of our album effectively combines the main product and ancillary texts together as the artistic mise en scene links the elements together. This is shown for example through the use of splats, representing explosions of music outburst into the industry with their new material as well as fundamentals of continuity between the products such as the poster and cover. We specifically designed the front cover to include these artistic elements in order to portray the fun loving and good natured star image of the band. The band members are coming out of the frames demonstrating their desire to break out into the music industry to become big. These conform to the conventions of marketing in the music industry such as similarly shown with the ‘Robots in Disguise’ CD cover where there is a clear use of art as well.


















This band was influential at the beginning of the project, such as the use of quirky styled image which we collectively wished to produce. The bands videos as well as song are very colourful and upbeat and therefore the CD cover compliments the music style reinforcing the meaning of the song.
Additionally to this, the band is being sold via the song and CD cover through the cinematography used. This makes viewers want to watch the music video continuously as well as the bands identification and desire being enhanced through the full showing of their faces on the CD covers. This in effect makes the viewers fully aware of whom they are therefore selling their overall image.



























































The back cover of the CD here illustrates the artist framing the boys. Similarly to the other panels there is an array of colour combinations and splats, with the colour red largely present throughout. Red is known to be an eye catching colour and therefore entices and draws in viewers via the visually stylish layout of the cover. The fact that the artist is framing the band symbolises her as the record company who are nurturing a newly formed band. Having said, this the fact that the band are framing themselves within the frame demonstrates that they are choosing the way they wish to be framed therefore portraying the bands organic nature forming their own image desired. At a later stage the record company will nurture the band by bringing out the bands raw talents such as ability to play their own instruments. Throughout each panel of the CD covers the bands faces are shown therefore promoting the band as well as identification of them. Despite the band looking young and inexperienced this works to their advantage as a stardom image of success against the odds is created in which the band are symbolised as ‘under dogs’ gaining success against belief in the competitive music industry. Each also panel works as a product in its own right.




























The poster demonstrates the band pulling faces representing the frames taking on a form of their own in a unique quirky style embodying human like qualities. The fact that these qualities are being portrayed represents the band as ordinary and therefore accessible to their young target audience as viewers feel they are able to relate to these actions. Having said this, the fact they are framed on a poster enhances their extraordinariness and star image to viewers as well. The warm and enticing colours additionally invite the audience to become apart of the band as well as viewers feeling they are able to relate to their fun like behaviour and characteristics. The images portrayed act as a visual equivalent to the bands nature and song through the artist mise en scenes of colours and splats. The splats also act as continuity throughout the CD cover and poster in order for the elements to compliment one another.

Other existing back covers for ideas for our own concept.

The concepts for each of these back covers demonstrate that a barcode is needed as well as a list of the general songs contained in the album. Additionally information concerning copyright and acknowledging the producers of the CD is required.

Our CDs general colours and images will be similar to these examples in respect to their quirky and abstractness of the images, however, maintaining the fun loving theme and simplicity of the general design.