A2 Media Studies

Friday, 6 May 2016

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Thursday, 5 May 2016

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

As a group we discovered the impracticality of low cost digital recorder cameras with the down sides being: low quality images (usually around 320p resolution), short battery life spans and often awkward controls such as the DXG series of camcorders. With the recent phenomenon of high quality camera phones becoming widely available we decided to utilize the iPhone 6s+ which boasts a 4K front camera.

Finding a way to steady the phone to the quality of the camera on a tripod was at first a challenge after taking initial shots free-hand, believing that there wasn't an alternative. Although, the shots still made it to the final cut of the video, taking them proved difficult and we worried about maintaining a high level of quality for each take.

Strangely, it was a disdain for the selfie-stick fad that gave us an idea to use the attachment phone-grip to hold the mobile and attach it to the tripod with the hope that it would be compatible with a tripod. We bought a selfie-stick and removed the phone attachment to find that it fits perfectly within the tripod jack. This effectively saved our piece and enabled us to take high quality shots with a steady foundation.

As we had chosen to use an iPhone to take the shots we needed, rather than transfer the contents to a computer to use more conventional software such as Sony Vegas, we used an application called Splice that acts the same as the Apple own video software: iMovie. Using this, it prevented us from spending large amounts of time transferring large amounts of data which would have been a challenge in itself with email size restrictions.

The sites we used were Blogger, for all of our research and planning and YouTube to publish and embed videos. To use Blogger, we needed to have a basic understanding of HTML 5 coding language, which we used to embed links and focus on specific commands when creating posts.

We used the WIX website builder to create our own website about the digipak which required us to use advanced YouTube settings to embed and link our video. Furthermore, we used Photoshop to create a still of our video to use as a back ground for the website and create synergy between our products.

Evaluation Question 3

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Whilst creating our music video, we believed that audience feedback was paramount in creating an enjoyable and technically proficient production. We approached audience feedback in a variety of ways varying from a focus group evaluating our first draft to a survey discussing genre conventions of music videos.

Firstly, we received feedback on our initial ideas which was a fantasy battle. We included our entire media studies class in the survey leading to, roughly, eight completed surveys. The feedback we received, both written and verbal, concluded that a fantasy battle will be difficult to produce when factors of cost were considered. Also, a fantasy battle would take too long to create due to the use of CGI and green-screen. Consequently, as we have no knowledge in the field of green screen effects and CGI we decided we were better off perfecting a simpler idea which was easier to create. From audience feedback, we were able to manage our time in a more productive manner. Furthermore, it allowed us to explore other aspects of the fantasy genre such as a dystopia similar to that of the hunger games which is what we ended up creating.

Secondly, after we completed our first draft, we requested verbal feedback from a few people in our class. The first draft consisted of a 50 second clip, the introduction of our video, we decided it would be wise to receive feedback on this section alone due to the fact that it would set the mood and pacing of our entire video. The general consensus was that we were on the right lines with the mood and tone of the video being quite gritty and depressive which was what we were aiming for, however the fact that we were trying to convey a dream-like atmosphere, as our genre is dream pop, didn't translate to our audience which was one aspect to improve. Another aspect our audience suggested we improve was the timing of shots in relation to the music. They believed that most shots should be in time with the drum beat which we completely agreed with and rectified this in our second draft - including all other concerns they raised with us making audience feedback paramount to the improvement of our music video.

Finally, after improving our first draft we decided to show a different group. Our second draft, consisted of the recommended improvements from our first group, yet, also included various additions such as filters, new transitions and new shots. The general consensus was positive, however the shots were still out of sync to the music which was our main concern with our final draft. We decided to redraft our entire video, because of this. making our audience feedback crucial to this process.

In conclusion, audience feedback was by far one of the most important aspects of the improvement of our production. Not only did it allow us to view our video from others perspectives and gain information that way, but it became clear that there were issue with timing and our videos in relation to the dream pop genre as a whole. Furthermore, the improvements to the music videos have been invaluable to this process.

Evaluation Question 2

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

For our music video, we decided to focus on some key features from the original video and use them in our own product as a reference to the original work. This is why we decided to set ours in a forest area as we believed it conveyed the correct mysterious theme that is a convention of the dream pop genre. We also believed it would make the most sense whilst referring to the story in our music video, a man chasing down another with a bow and arrow.

However, we decided to change our filter and overall theme of the video changing the entire meaning of the song in the process. The original works is demonstrating the protagonist of the video as a victim whilst they regain their power, however, ours describes the wolf as an assassin in some sense, the representation of the wolf is changed to someone stalking and hunting their target or prey. In relation to our other ancillary texts such as the Digipak, we have focused on the imagery of the wolf to present our piece. This makes the combination of our Digipak and Song extremely effective as it depicts a wolf in a delicate pattern - noticing the vulnerability of the lyrics and the powerful imagery of the wolf.

We believed that this would be most beneficial to the overall storyline of our video and allow us to keep certain genre conventions such as a disjointed narrative within our production.

Furthermore, our music video was inspired by other media texts such as the hunger games. Our protagonist of the video was heavily inspired by the protagonist of hunger games, Katniss Everdeen. This is why we opted to use a bow instead of a gun as we believed it would present a much more rustic, dystopia theme. We presented this in our website with it having an ethereal theme with white and black colours taking priority and any photographs being washed out and faded. We believed that this design would be most appropriate when taking into consideration that the website is for the dream pop genre. It is also why the choices in font were rather gentile rather than bold font as it is indicative of the genre. We have also taken inspiration from the alternative genre to convey our website as dream-pop and alternative are extremely similar in stylistic choices which is why we believe the website and video combine perfectly.

What also became apparent was the use of modern clothing. We believed a fantasy (Our original idea) would not suit the lyrics in the music video, yet, we wanted to continue using the bow and arrow hence the dystopia a feel, as if the world were lost in nature. Katniss Everdeen embodied everything we wanted in our video as she is a strong character who holds traits that could be linked to a wolf such as her skill at hunting. We showed this in our Digipak also. The inclusion of the wolf on our front cover was supposed to emphasise the wolf as the primary aspect of our video showing that the combination of all of these emphasised the meaning and icons in our production.

We also believed that a lighter filter to our video would suit it much more as it includes fast paced shots and various match on action shots that are not featured in the original work. The original focused heavily on close-up shots and slow-mo which is why we decided to set ourselves apart to avoid falling into the trap of being too similar to the original product. Also, it would make much moire sense in our video as it is faster in shot speed and camera movement. The lack of slow-mo is another contributing factor as to why we did not include similar shots. The fact that we instead decided to speed up certain sections of our video meant the further away the person or object was away from the camera meant that the shot could continue for longer.

In the dream pop genre, there is usually a recurring object that appears in the video. For Phildel's version of the video, she focused on a twig which was uniquely shaped and it appeared in different art such as her album cover and EP CD disc. Our group chose to focus on a bow and arrow for our object. This worked well for us as the bow and arrow would have been in the video regardless, but with the inclusion of an object being the convention of a dream pop video we decided to include more close ups of the bow and arrow rather than it just being a prop, this makes it one of the most notable features of the video which was intentional.

In terms of ancillary texts, our website and Digipak follow a very similar design of mainly washed out colours being the theme, however when something is required to stand out more noticeable vibrant colours will be used which is inspired by Phildel's original artwork that she uses in her music albums. There is also similarities in the clear genre conventions we have used such as gentile thin fonts rather than harsh, bold fonts that would usually be used in a house music genre. We have also followed the convention of the imagery of animals and wildlife in the dream-pop genre, also, inspired by Phildel and other dream pop artists.

Our video and digipak demonstrate clear imagery of wildlife. The protagonist being representative of the wolf that is mentioned in the song bringing an almost literal meaning to a metaphor within the song, whilst on the album cover, imagery of wildlife such as flowers and most notably a wolf has clear direct links to our music video making the combination of the two extremely effective when presenting this.

Our video's setting plays a large role as it shows the foliage and mystical theme we were trying to convey. Furthermore, the website follows the same theme depicting forest and foliage screenshots from our video which is what we, as a group, deemed the most important aspect to display. We have included a picture of the digipak also to emphasise the cross compatibility and combination of all our media texts.

Evaluation Question 1

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

We didn't include titles in our piece as it was only a feature indicative of a high budget production similar to a film - an example of this would be Taylor Swift - Bad Blood. However, the average dream-pop music video would not contain any titles which is why we decided to follow the codes and conventions and follow.

The setting is also inspired off the original work - Phildel - The Wolf. We believed that a forest setting would make sense in a dream pop video due to the fact that it presented the most mystery out of all of the locations possible. There is also a large amount of foliage surrounding the area we live making it easy to film at allowing us to improve or edit more frequently if needed be.

For costume, we needed something that looked almost dystopian yet still familiar, which is why we decided on our own clothes. The alternative was a fantasy clothing/costume style, however, we didn't believe that this suited the lyrics of the song. We wore very washed out colours with nothing too vibrant so the mood came across as quite depressed and sad without using a black and white filter in order to not copy the original text. The protagonist is wearing a grey top similar to that of a grey wolf, we have done this so it is obvious that he is the primary character. The secondary character is wearing inconspicuous clothing to not make him stand out which is why he is wearing a black jumper with a hood.

Our frames were rather distanced from the original product as our shots are much more faster than the original video. This allowed us to add additional effects and transitions such as motion blurs and fast forwards which, yet again, is a code/convention for the genre.

The narrative of the music video is purposefully disjointed as are all music videos in the dream pop genre. This makes it so the lyrics and the music video relate and are in beat but there is a hidden meaning to the song as well as a hidden narrative. In our video, the narrative is representative of the song. A wolf trying to catch its prey, yet, the wolf being the victim in a way.

Our characters are based of general pop-culture references. Our main character shows a strong protagonist similar to that of the hunger games, whilst our secondary character wears clothing to make him unnoticeable. We based it off a common medieval thief that you would see in a television show similar to Game of Thrones.

We made a point to ensure that the music would flow with the visuals: making it far faster paced during climaxes within the music. This ensures that the video is not disjointed to the music itself rather than the lyrics which can be seen as symbolic in nature on their own. Considering the context of the writer and the relation to the original music video by Phildel (Decca Records) we felt it be best if we engaged with the rhythm rather than words. To this effect, the video had an aspect of fluidity rather than what could be awkward cuts and visuals relating to specific phrases.