Final Music Video

Ancillary Text: Digipak Advert

Ancillary Text: Digipak

Media Evaluation Question 1: In what way does your media product use, develop and challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Media Evaluation Question 2: How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

Media Evaluation Question 3: What Have You Learned From Your Audience Feedback?

Media Evaluation Question 4: How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

Media Evaluation Question 4: How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages? Draft

Media Evaluation Question 4: How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

I used a variety of media technologies throughout the course of producing the project, these range from Adobe Photoshop and Premier to web applications and video hosting platforms, these were utilized to present information in an interesting way and to help work on the products themselves.

From the preliminary exercise, which was a same continuity task that was intended to show a character opening a door, crossing a room and exchanging dialogue with another character to demonstrate the 180 degree rule, I have progressed significantly in video production and use of editing software. Whereas on the preliminary and AS project I used Final Cut Pro, the project I worked on now used Adobe Premiere, with equipment with different formats (the cameras that I used for the AS year were all digital, whereas for the A2 project they all used tape (MiniDVs)- with the minor exception of when I needed to use my friend's equipment after I forgot to pick up a camera from college), but the progression is that the quality of video that has been produced is superior and shows a clear progression in regards to the standard of editing, which is of a far more complex level that the preliminary video. Also, the progression is shown in the clear commitment to a distinct aesthetic, that being of the distorted black and white style of the video that is used throughout, this commitment to use the effects of the software confidently shows a progression from the effect-less preliminary video.

This also allowed me to experiment with different cameras and styles during the production, I did this by experimenting with a more heavy duty camera for more static camera work (though I did try make it a bit more mobile) and used a handheld camera to try and get closer to the subject, and create a more fluid cinematography. Though it didn't always work out the way I intended it, it did give me more choice in the edit suite, with many of the improvised experiments turning up in the finished film, this is shown in the focus pulls, the surf rock wave subversion shots, which originally weren't going to be as at the forefront as it appears in the finished video, this was quite spur of the moment after seeing how good the location was , this ended up looking quite effective in the finished video, along with the focus pulls, which provided an interesting way of introducing the character whilst adding to the grimy feel of the video. There were some problems that did need to be addressed using the cameras, mainly that the large camera was quite heavy, so with continued use some of the shots started to get shakier and proved to be difficult to keep steady whilst mobile (shown in the tracking shots), this is why we tried using more handheld cameras to try and solve this, the only problem was that it was at a lower video resolution.

This progression could be attributed to my use of Adobe Premiere during the AS Film Studies course last year, in which Premier was used to edit a short film, this then provided more experience and allowed me become more comfortable with the software and the confidence to play around and experiment with it. Because of doing a short film with it at AS, it made me approach the film schedule in a different manner, as I undershot on that project leading meaning that I had to get creative with the edit to pull it up to the runtime, I had had a similar predicament during the AS Media project (though that was due to the limited time I had to shoot coupled with the set set-up time, 40 minutes) and the fact that the college wouldn't let me use a smoke machine during the production out of fear that it may set off the sprinkler systems.

For the A2 project I had to use Adobe Photoshop more extensively, this was primarily in the creation of the two ancillary products, whereas in the AS Foundation Portfolio it was far more reserved in it's use, being on only used to create a logo for my video (done through initially through free-form drawing and the paint bucket tool, later redone with the rectangle shape tool and inverting the finished image). For the creation of the DigiPak and advert, I had to get to grips more with the use of Photoshop for image manipulation purposes, this was primarily to give the screen grabs from the music video to make them more in line with what is typical of the punk genre in terms of what is commonly used on DigiPaks and adverts. I did this by adding noise to the images on the DigiPak to give them a distressed look that is a convention of album covers from the punk hey day of the late '70s and early '80s on album covers such as Dead Kennedys "Fresh Fruit For Rotting Vegetables" and X "Los Angeles", while on the advert I used the image filter to give the images a "cutout" look that again is in keeping with the conventions of the genre. The only real problems I had with Photoshop was when I was trying to design a sticker for the DigiPak, which was more due to my inexperience with the software.

CamStudio  is a display recording software that was used for Question 4 of the evaluation, I had no previous experience with this software, being a portable piece of software it allowed me to move it around on a portable flash drive to record myself using Adobe Photoshop and Premiere. The software was generally easy to use, however it had a tendency to crash when used on the portable version, especially on videos that exceeded 10 seconds.

For recording audience feedback via anonymous online surveys, I originally used FreeOnlineSurveys.com, which was quick, easy to use and had good analysis tools. Although, I had to switch to using SurveyMonkey after it became apparent that after ten days of free service, the feedback became locked on FreeOnlineSurveys.com. SurveyMonkey did the same job and me to get feedback from a wide cross section of people.

YouTube is a large online video hosting platform, I used it to host my music video given that it is the most popular site for viewing music videos according to my audience feedback. I also used it to host the other videos I created for my research and planning pieces and for my evaluation, with it's large database of videos it became allowed access to other videos that I could take inspiration from and use as examples. As a hosting site for my videos I had little problems using it, the only real problems I had with it were the fact that at times uploading took far too long, or it would require the same video to be uploaded twice as it had undergone a problem at some stage of the upload.

My project itself was hosted on Blogger.com, a creative blogging site that I had used previously regarding my AS Foundation Portfolio; the format is easy to use, almost operating like an online version of Microsoft Word with less formatting options (unless you format in the HTML), which isn't a bad thing. Uploading images is pretty quick and embedding off site content is pretty simple; the only problem is that at times when an image is uploaded it can take awhile to format it properly. Another positive of the web app is that it allows my teacher to view my project progress in real time, allowing him to make sure that the project is up to date.

Prezi is an online application that allows the user to create a free form presentation, the site allows you to add text and embed multimedia and present it in a manner that the user sees fit, with the slides moving across fluidly and allowing you to add and take slides without much hassle. I had used this website before during my AS Foundation Portfolio and I haven't had any problems with it, apart from it having a tendency to crash after using it for long periods; I mainly used this to present  research into music video generic features and Digipaks.

Media Evaluation Question 3: What Have You Learned From Your Audience Feedback? Draft

The benefits of using audience feedback in the process of designing your media products is that it allows you to get an outsider perspective on the issue at hand which can be useful as you can be far too close to the product to see any issues.  It also allows you get direct input from your target audience which in this case is males, typically from the teenage years to thirty and usually students (informed from audience research into the punk genre), who are the direct consumers of the products that I'm making.

I collected audience feedback mainly in the use of online surveys, using sites like Survey Monkey and FreeOnlineSurveys.com to collect anonymous feedback, though college based target groups (mainly for the main task and when looking at the audience) and through conversations with my media teacher (more directly related to my ancillary products),

Online surveys deliver anonymous views, hence the feedback is unbiased from a wider cross section of people.   However, the results may not be from your target audience and it time consuming to receive all responses and analyse them.   If the participants do not understand the questions they may not complete all the survey and the results may not be reliable.  However, a problem I encountered is that Survey Monkey is a free site and allows constant free access to results but FreeOnlineSurveys.com requires you to pay to access the results after a ten day period which meant I had to record all the results before the expiry date.

Asking my college focus group to complete surveys gave a quicker response but I could not be sure how accurate or unbiased the resulting feedback was because of the fact that the participants know me and might feel uncomfortable criticizing my work.

Getting responses from media staff is more direct, feedback is instantaneous and didn't require any additional analysis and was more insightful to the project.  However, it can be biased and they are not exactly the target audience.

Learning from the feedback for the project shows the target demographic was more female than expected though this could be more representative of the sample who filled out the questionnaire.  The majority of them prefer to watch videos online on mobiles phones and TV rather than PC/laptops.  A high proportion of respondents watch music videos because they like the song but also how it is represented in visual form and the use of special effects.  Some feedback was contradictory in that there was split between respondents wanting performance or narrative with a small minority focusing on the message.

This feedback influenced the main task as the majority wanted a good narrative to the video which can be summed up with a story arc that matches the song's meaning, so I decided to incorporate this to reach a higher viewership which is why I made the video narrative based.  The feedback also stated they wanted a higher performance level but I was unable to achieve this owing to the initial band dropping out of the project at late stage meaning I had to change the brief to a fully narrative video.

In conducting future audience research I would firstly identify the demographic in greater detail and target them exclusively.  I would also ensure the questions were more focused to the feedback required to avoid contradictory statements and a clearer message.

Media Evaluation- Drafting: Software Skills Videos

Media Evaluation Question 2: How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts? Draft

Media Evaluation Question 2: How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

The music video, DigiPak and DigiPak advert create a coherent brand identity and house style through the use of the colour scheme, as the distorted grey aesthetic is used throughout the products which is conventional of the genre of the products, as the use of the fuzzy distortion on the images in the DigiPak and the video is evocative of the "DIY" aesthetic of the punk genre, this is furthered by the use of iconography which is in keeping with this as it jumps from grungy images of urban decay to images of over pollution- these images are explicitly linked to the genre, as the genre is stereotypically known for viewing the more outré elements with relish and slumming in scuzziness this would therefore fit into the conventions of the genre, and further the message of over pollution of the song . Also the decision to use screengrabs from the video, though distorted through Photoshop, provide a clear and coherent brand identity, it allows the brand to become easily recognisable to the audience as they all link together through use of similar imagery. It also conforms to conventions of other media products that were analysed, such as the Devo DigiPak , wherein the videos themselves are used to create a brand identity for the band (Sven E. Carlson) which is then carried forward into their other products, namely DigiPak and the advert for one, this is shown through the use of screengrabs from the video on the DigiPak and DigiPak advert, this is providing a continuation of the brand identity from the video to ancillary products to create a more cohesive house style.

The font also adds to this sense of unity across the products, the white text creates a contrast to the gritty black and white visuals which furthers the degraded aesthetic, it's appearance in the video not only harks back to '50s sci-fi films (which used this sort of title sequence) but is also a convention of this genre of music video. To use it on the ancillary products links the products together through this shared theme, furthering the message of the song- as this subversion of the conventions of idealized '50s futures with images of pollution and a sense of futility against what would typically be an overbearing sense of optimism creates an interesting juxtaposition and furthers the message of the song, and by carrying this over across the products it creates an ideological unity that adds to the overall cohesiveness of the products.

The use of screen grabs as art work provides a consistent visual style that is used across the products, it works almost like a logo, and creates a sort of signature for the products linking them together promoting a sense of synergy between them, it also the distorted nature of the screengrabs recalls the earlier days of punk with fanzines such as Sniffing Glue, thereby this "cut-up" look on the ancillary products conveys the genre to the audience and allows the products to stand unified together sharing the representing the same genre. This synergy between the products is further stressed in the fact that the advert contains an image of the of the DigiPak, this demonstrates clearly to the audience an explicit connection between the products.

Media Evaluation Question 1 : How does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? Draft

Media Evaluation Question 1 : How does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

The music video itself conforms to the conventions of music videos of it's genre, the conceptual video style with abstract imagery is used throughout the punk and new wave genre, in the videos by such artists like Talking Heads and Devo, but whilst the band that I used was a punk band, the song itself is more new wave with surf rock riffs. So I built upon the conventions of these genres, this is shown in the wave montage which uses iconography that is typical of that genre (waves, beaches, surfing) and I further explored the genre through the use of black and white photography, a convention of surf rock videos that was probably due to necessity at the time rather than choice (being that the genre reached it's zenith in the '50s). This also fits in with the inclusion of iconography typical of '50s sci-fi into the video's mise-en-scene as it stylistically fit the tone of the song, fit in context with the narrative that I was trying to create and is a also in keeping with the use of these elements in videos of the new wave genre.

These conventions of the surf rock genre were then skewered to fit in with the punk aesthetic, this was done through placing the pollution as the central point in the beach shots, exemplified in the use of close ups in the video's cinematography as a means of making the imagery more confrontational and stressing the juxtaposition that is created through the use of montage between the images of surf and the beach covered in litter, which not only hammers home the message of the song (which is a convention of punk music videos- a clear message that may be political or societal, an example ebing The Strikes song Shots Heard Around the World, which promotes a Marxist message), but it also explores the more "ugly" aspects of the location shown through the use of litter and pollution, this again fits in with the conventions of punk videos, with the punk ideology as a whole exploring the "uglier" aspects of topics. Therefore, this video may be challenging to the surf rock genre, but it is fully within the conventions of the punk genre.

The videos challenges Todorov's narrative theory, in that the conventions of a narrative would entail that they follow the order of equilibrium, disruption of the equilibrium, recognition of the disruption, attempt to repair the disruption and new equilibrium. The music video eschews this in favor of presenting the disruption and the recognition, but showing no action against this or reconciliation of this to form a new equilibrium, the character instead just views this passively in the same way that the audience are, leaving a sense of overbearing impotence. This challenging of narrative convention provides a means of conveying the message of the song to the audience, whilst drawing the viewers attention to the fact that they're watching a music video, in regards it could be described as being postmodern and as breaking the fourth wall (Bertolt Brecht). This technique was utilized not only to make the audience identify with the video's protagonist, but in that it evokes similar techniques used in the Beautiful World music video by Devo, an experimental new wave video that challenges the audience to look further through use of the Kuleshov effect, in the juxtaposition of idealised '50s visions of happiness and archival footage of atrocities and hate.

The representation of the protagonist through close ups and long shots fits the conventions of the punk genre, which typically feature characters that are outsiders which is shown in numerous videos, such as NOFX's Bob, The Residents' Hello Skinny and Andrew Jackson Jihad's Coffin Dance videos, the use of long shot stresses the isolation of the character to the environment, whilst the close ups humanize the character to the audience. In that representation, the video conforms to the conventions of the genre, however, this doesn't conform to the music video theory of "The Ideal Self" (Carl Rodgers, 1960) being that the character that is presented isn't strong, or holds any aspirational  qualities for the viewer, therefore it goes against these conventions.

Traditionally music videos of this genre would feature the band in a performance type mode, however due to the band I had dropping out as filming started I had to abandon this, initially I had intended to film the band in a manner in which would have been in keeping with the conventions of music videos of the genre (Siouxie Sioux and the Banshees - Hong Kong Garden being a good example of this), as performance in music videos is usually used to establish the band's Star Persona (Richard Dyer, 1975) and links back to Roy Shuker's theory that music videos are a "promotional device" (2001), even as one of my early questionnaire feedback stated that this was the most important element of a music video, by going against this it breaks convention.

The editing of the video, isn't quite as fast-paced as that of other videos in the genre as I decided to go against the generic conventions to try and convey the melancholic contemplative nature of the song, hence the longer shot length when compared to fast paced videos like NOFX's Bob video which makes extensive use of cross-cutting and generally has a low average shot length. However, given that the punk genre is pretty wide in terms of sub-genres, not to mention the overlap that does occur with the new wave genre, there is therefore a spread in the approach to music videos, with some conceptual videos like mine that utilize longer takes and a more abstract imagery, such as in Death Grips' "I Break Mirrors with my Face in the United States" which uses a continuous long single take throughout the video or Talking Heads "Road to Nowhere"  video which has a high average shot length. Therefore it could be argued that the use of long takes doesn't conform to typically to the mainstream conventions of the punk genre, but it does c onform to the genre's more abstract and conceptual examples. Though the video editing techniques used do conform, with the use of cross-cutting and overlays being used a lot in the genre, usually to either move from the narrative aspects of a video to the performance or to underscore the lyrics with an image (either to create a visual metaphor or to contextualize the lyrics for the audience, as shown in The Dead Kennedys "Holiday in Cambodia" video), I attempted to develop these to give use the overlays and cross-cutting to further the message of the song by creating a juxtaposition between the protagonist and the environment around him, an example of this is shown towards the beginning of the video wherein a medium 360 degree low angle tracking shot has an image of the industrial factory images overlaid on it, this was used to illustrate the character's state of mind whilst underscoring the lyrics "a crowded future stings my eyes".

The video features numerous shots of the character walking away from the camera, I tried to use this as a visual motif, intertextually referencing back to The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (Luis Bunuel, 1972), as a means of conveying the idea of being constantly unsatsfied, this theme is similarly explored in the Talking Heads "Road to Nowhere" . In my use of this, is is to express the song's message through the character's dissatisfaction with the world around him becoming moving from the natural into a urbanized dystopic vision wherein natural images are awash with pollution and even the moon resembles that of an LED light, in a sense then the video conforms with Sven E. Carlson's 1999 theory that lyrics and visuals interact to create meaning, with the chorus of "bathe in my moonlight" and "there will always be a moon over Marin" taking on a more cynical reading thus giving the audience more intellectual pleasures rather than visceral or emotional. The theme of dissatisfaction  can also be linked back  thematically to the nihilist hedonist themes that dominate all rock music, within normal rock music this is a promotion of outlandish behaviour, whereas in the punk genre this dissatisfaction leads to a rejection of societal norms and a challenging of authority,

Stylistically, the video makes use of black and white cinematography, this connotes the genre in the fact that many of the videos that I have looked at from the punk genre utilize a filtered cinematography, it also fits in with the dystopic '50s sci-fi aesthetic that I tried to achieve whilst also owing a debt to Jean-Luc Godard's Alphaville (1965) which used regular Parisian locations shot in black and white to try and convey a vision of the future. By modelling some of the cinematography on this along with Aleksei German's Hard to be a God (2015) and Peter Bogdonavitch's The Last Picture Show (1971) this fits in with Andrew Goodwin's theory on the codes and conventions of music videos (1992) which state intertextuality as one for most music videos.



DigiPak
For the DigiPak , I did some research into the conventions of DigiPaks associated with the genre, and for the most part the DigiPak that I have constructed conforms to a majority of the conventions, such as:production information, Dolby Digital, CD and DVD logos, track listings, a barcode and company logos. The grey scale colour scheme fits with the generic conventions of the punk genre whilst promoting synergy between the products, and the artwork that is used on the product is typical of nihilist black and white imagery that can be seen on albums such as Dead Kennedys "Fresh Fruit For Rotting Vegetables" and X "Los Angeles", though it does lack the irreverent humour that is evident in other punk releasing.

Advert
For the advert, after looking at various examples of them it became clear that the majority used a black and white colour scheme, this fit back in to what can be considered a convention of the punk genre, considering I used this colour scheme across my products, this further perpetuates a house style, that helps establish a brand identity and synergy across the products. This is further established through the use of screenshots from the music video, whilst a generic feature of DigiPak adverts is to utilize an image of the artist to bank on their Star Persona, as is the case with a few of the adverts I looked at such as the Adam Ant advert which shows only him on a black and white advert, it also links back to the low-budget "diy" ethos associated with punk whereby bands had to use their Star Persona as a means of self-promotion. However, given that the band I had lined up pulled out and I had to use the original song, it was unrealistic to therefore try and get the real band, so I drew on influences from some artists that used iconic images from their out put as a means of self-promotion on their adverts, such as Nirvana  using the images of a baby swimming after a dollar on a hook. This image has been indelibly linked to the band due to it's use on the band's breakout album Nevermind and has since become a part of the band's brand identity, in a similar way to how a logo might be used.

In keeping with this idea, I used screen grabs from the video to create a coherent brand identity across the products, whilst using various filters on the screen grabs to promote the "cut-out" dirty black and white aesthetic that is commonly associated with the punk genre as it pushes the "diy" ethos, as many of the original punk adverts were hand made as that was the only way of promoting themselves. This therefore sticks closely to the generic conventions of the punk genre.

7th January

5th January 2016