Question 2. How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts.

Question 2

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Question 3. What have you learned from your audience feedback

An important way of learning from your mistakes and how to improve my work is through audience feedback.

In this blog I am going to show my targets audiences' reactions to my music video and their thoughts and opinions. I am going to ask them varying questions to maximize the feedback I receive.

When looking at peoples feedback I am going to be applying the appropriate theories to understand their feedback fully.



The first form of feedback that I received was from my media studies class where we watched everyone's media production and we made appropriate comments on their work. These are their comments and thoughts of our media product:


Our second form of feedback come in the response of our teacher. I asked him what his general thoughts of our music video was and his response "I found that the start of the music video was just showing a guy following a girl, it wasn't till the second half of the music video that I didn't engage in the 'low key' feel"
Using the uses and gratifications theory; in the first half of the video he was looking for the need of Diversion and Personal Identity to be gratified through my media product. but this need was not being gratified till the second half of the music video, where the music video engaged the audience through humor and antics. This engagement allows the audience to compare the contrasts to their own life, gratifying Personal Identity. It also allows the view to be diverted from their own life through laughter and enjoyment gratifying their need for Escapism.

Our teacher also Picked up on the mise-en-scene of the music video, he said "I also thought that the mise-en-scene could be a bit more seedy, it could be a bit more grungy. The look as if the main character actually smells."
This would allow the audience to engage in the music video's settings more intensely.

He also said, "The lip syncing broke the engagement with the music video because it was off in places."
From the viewers point of view I understood that it was disappointing for the lip syncing to be off but due to technical limitation (mentioned in question 4) only so much was possible. While our hard work is put in by trying to engage the audience into the music video it is spoiled by the lip syncing, breaking their engagement as a result.

I also asked one of my friends that likes similar types of music such as Wheatus - Teenage Dirtbag. His response to our music video was - "Overall I liked the music video, there are different areas that could be imporoved such as the lip syncing."
I ask how it made him feel and what his view towards Stalkers and 'creeps' were, and he replied "before I saw this video I thought that stalkers were horriable creepy people that don't have a life, now I have seen this video it has made me keep the same thoughts but I have sympathised for the character at points of the music video like the second verse where he is being comforted by his friend and he becomes frustrated with him." I then asked him if he found it comical although he was sympathising for the character, he said "yes, I mostly found it funny rather than sympathised for the character" This shows the demonstration of the cultural studies approach theory as he is showing a preferred reading by reading the text as it is supposed to be. Our values are supposed to show the neglect that the character is recieving but the comedy of what is happening to him and the things he is doing is supposed to be dominant.

Question 4. Technology

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

Technology was a key to our media production with out it our project would have been impossible, but modern technologies helped aid us to make a professional looking music video.

The technology at our disposal was largely limited in contrast to professional directors.

Our technology was capped at:

Low budget video camera (Panasonic Camcorder)

Adobe premiere pro 2.0

Tripod

Lighting kits

DSLR

Adobe Photoshop CS2

This limited our abilities to pull of certain shot effectively enough. Meaning that we did not have the equipment to perform tracking shots professionally, if we decided to take these shots it would have to be hand held.

Other shots were also limited like point of view shots as we did not have access to a point of view harness which would of aided us to perform this shot practically and professionally. This left us with the mature look of a shaky hand held look.

Also with regards to the camera technology professional camera were non-attainable for us as the only cameras available at our disposal was the college's commercial Panasonic Camcorder. This posed the problem of definition and video quality, this meant that we had to be cautious with the lighting, as if lighting was too dull then image would be too under exposed but if lighting was too bright then glare would spoil the image.

We were also limited by access for filming as permission for filming is compulsory and there were no studios available for our use.

Our skill was also very limiting for us, the use of the editing tools slowed us down as we couldn't always work out ways in which to apply our ideas to the filming using the editing program, this often left us having to ask people and researching.


Professional Directors/video makers would address these problems with further use of technology (of which is not accessible for us, due to budget and accessibility). Just to list a few technologies available to them:

Tracking and trolley for tracking shots - This would mean that they would get a smooth and consistent tracking shot.



Studios - This would widen the possibility of filming locations.



Higher definition Cameras - This would allow more definition and crisper colours and would prevent nasty glares.



Professional lighting/Naturalistic lighting - This would compliment the colouring of the filming and the high definition of the camera.



Point of view harnesses and steadicams - Would provide the video with a more steady and engaging shot. Making the audience believe that it is a real point of view shot.



A production station for editing including a contol board (also professional editor) - This allows quick short cut (on the control board) which means creative idea don't get forgeten over the hassel of messing about with the equipment. The professional editor also means that the specialist can apply his techniques.



Had we been given the chance to use this professional equipment we would have been heavily advantaged. Allowing us to pull of the correct shots and edit it correctly.

Question 1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products

.The struggle against forms and conventions is one of the most demanding aspects of making a music video. Forms and conventions can be followed or challenged . The way in which the stereotypical conventions of the music genre is broken and challenged is through creativity.

This creativity can be achieved through inspirations.

Inspirations for creativity can come from many places:

Experience

Experiments

Rejections of main stream video's

Books

Films

Paintings

Creativity of brilliant ideas are often though which are not pushed and forced out.

Much of our ideas was accumulated from experiences of rejection.

But most of our ideas came from conventions of the music genre.
These conventions of the music genre laid the basis for our music video, for example the conventions for a music video telling the story about a girl that they want is often the protagonist following the girl.

In order to break forms and conventions in our music video we tried to add concepts that were unexpected in the music genre. One thing we introduced straight away in the music video was the use of stop motion titling.

The use of entropy in our video creates effects on the audience, effecting them to enguage the media text more closely, for example when we see the main character holding candles it creats an entropic theme untill we see the message that reads "I love u". This relieves the audience of their enigmatic thoughts.

Our music video is also unconventional in the way that the main character doesn't get the girl in the end of the music video. In music videos of the same genre and narrative it is conventional for the main character to achieve his goal and get the girl in the end, and perform a "happily ever after" story. But we have challenged this convention by being consistent through the story and make the girl uninterested in him.

McConnell was the found of the life cycles theory. He says that every media text circulates stages within there genre. The stages he quoted that a genre follows is as followed:
Epic
Adventurous Romance
Melodrama
Parody
Apocalypse
Dormant
And back to epic, completing the circle.

Throughout this circulation idea's are being added to existing idea's and creating new genres beneath these existing genres. These constantly forming genres have made identifying genres very hard as they are constantly expanding and there are so many sub genres they could be classed into under the subsidiary genre.

I think that our music video is in the parody stage of the life cycle as it is using the genre and making it comical and the idea's of other music video's are used in a novel way. The biggest example of this in our music video is the use of winegums to propose to the Mel.

Print Coursework

Final Video Production

Research and planning for the digi-pak

I am going to produce an effective digi-pak that will attract my target audience. But firstly I need to research existing digi-paks in order to understand their forms and conventions.



This is the first digi-pak I am going to research. Straight away the conotations of darkness is clear from the colour scheme (black and fire) this reflect the tone of the music and allows the audience to enguage with the cd straight understanding its intentions and its contents to an extent.



This digi-pak of Kanye West's Album has been left very simplistic and bold. This allows the audence to enguage with the connotation as they are so bold and clear, for example the heart leads on from a picture of him stood there with lines coming out from his heart. Straight away we understand it is about love.

The mood of the colour staight away connotes holidays and relaxation. The modles on the cover also connotes perfection, dreamy and sun. All of these digi-paks are using the same (or similar) colour backgrounds and colour schemes throughout the digi-pak, So I am going to take this aspect and use it in my own work.

Another aspect that I am going to use in my own work is the fact that the digi-paks have been left simplistic and bold, for the audience to enguage with the product. This is something important for my media product.

14. Effects on audience related to my coursework

My initial intent is to create a media product that my audience will enjoy and find enlightening. The effects on my audience will be determined by uses and gratifications. There are 4 needs that audiences need to be fulfilled;
-Diversion
Diversion is the escapism from the audiences everyday life.
-Personal Relationships
The audience creates a relationship between them and the character.
-Personal Identity
The audience is relating them self to the character and their personality and charisma
-Surveillance
It is simply Information of what is happening in the world.

Audience take at least on of these needs from a media text. We hope to achieve Diversion and Personal Identity from our music video.

13. Stop-Motion practice

We were looking for something creative to incorporate into our opening credits, We decided on stop motion for this.

12. Cast

Our cast will include friends that have agreed to help us film our music video.

Our main character will be played by Rory Grint-Smith, who will follow and stalk "Melanie".


Our secondary character is "Mel" played by Vicky Hunt.


Finally our last character staring in our music video is the friend of the main character, which will feature in the chorus'. This part will be played by Tom Donnelly

10a. How our Idea's have been influenced and spawned through research

Our filming ideas have been created from the research that I have made. The research of music video's is vital to the production of this music video as it helps us understand our audiences needs and pleasures.

My first example of where my research has been implemented to our planning is in the second scene where the main character is rejected by the girl, this is largely influenced by a scene in "Wheatus - Teenage dirtbad" when the main character looks up at the girl and it seems that she is looking back at him but she rejects him and walks straight to another boy. The connotations that we wish to achieve from this scene is rejection and lonelyness. These connotations will appeal to the target audence because they can relate to the event.

Through out most of the video we see the main character trying to grab the attention of the girl, this shows connotations of willing ness and hope. These connotations were taken from the song "Musiq soulchild - Buddy" as he is following her and singing to her " wont you be my B-U-D-D-Y" and we have tried to encorporate this into our music video by having him follow her and have him singing little bits of the lyrics to her, this scene will create hope for the character and our intentions from using this is to enguage the viewer and sympathize for the character.

When we see the main character sat on the bench drinking this portrays the stereotypical view of teenagers (aged from 17-19) being "wasters" and always abusing drink. This is why we chose to use cast that is around that age as it represents youth and provides a stereotypical view of teenagers. This is a concept that has presented it's self through the research of "Blink 182 - First Date." As this music video represents teenagers as trouble makers and mischievous, these connotations are created for example when one of the guys from the band throws a baseball bat into the spokes of the girl with braces, and then they swear at them. This representation would not work for a different group of people as this is the stereotypical view of teenagers.

finally the scene when we see the "Melony" return to her locker to find it covered in love notes, this scene was inspired by "Weird Al - Do I creep you out." because he shows his obsession by creating a shrine of this woman and is constantly peering round corners to watch her. Our scene shows the audience the obsession of the main character and how far he will go to show his love for her. But hen she rips them down it shows the rejection once again.

10. Planning of the music video

We have created Idea's for filming, these idea's may spaw/develop into new idea's or we could choose to miss ideas out all together.

The music video will start with a quirky intro to the song with stop motion, titling the song. We intend to use magnetic alphabet letters for a comical effect as it adds entropy to the music video.

from then we will see the main character walking also to sit next to 'Melanie'. A long shot will show them on the bench together, he then presents pop corn and a DVD to her to match the lyrics "So come back to my room and we can watch a movie." he will then go to ponce on her and she will reject him and she will walk off, out of bare desperation he follows her and tries to propose to her with winegums. she then slaps him and walks off, this leads onto the chorus.

The first chorus will show the main character and his friend sat down and he is comforting the main character. But his friend gets frustrated and annoyed so he slaps him and walks off in anger. All of which is shown in a 2 shot. We then see the main character sat on his own singing the chorus to himself showing his remorse.

in the second verse the main character will be sat in a library and bust out crying on.. "I'll cry, I'll cry" and then we see a point of view shot to show him looking through relationship books this then leads onto a medium shot of the main character sat next to someone as he acts out the lyrics "Is it because a dry piece of hair gel fell your way" by scratching his hair and looking at his hand, the person sat next to him then acts out "Is it because my B.O had nowhere to go" by sniffing and then moving away from the main character.

The next scene will be of the main character sat on another bench drinking from a brown paper bag when 'Melanie' walks past and he gets up and follows her. On the lyrics "I should of been sober" he throws the drink in the air and it comes back down and hits him on the head, the camera will tilt to show the drink going up in the air and hitting him on the head. We then see a medium close up of the main character singing "I sat on a bench with the prettiest girl in bricxham"

The next chorus is then of the main character and his friend again, playing on rock band equipment and singing along to the lyrics. The drums and singing will be synced to the beat.

the break down after the chorus will show a wide shot of the main charcter holding a sign saying "I'm sorry" with a chip shop in shot, to fit the lyrics. This then cuts to him contemplating between Melanie and the chips. This will use match on action to cut to a point of view shot. We then cut to the chips on the floor to show that he has chosen melanie over the chips. the next shot shows him walking way into the background as the chips are in the foreground.

The next scene we see is of 'Melanie' returning to her locker to find that there are notes all over her locker and inside, we see match on action as she opens and close's the locker. her reaction to these notes is to rip them down, we then see the main character peer round the corner.
this then cuts to a night scene where he is stood outside her house with candles spelling out "I LOVE U" a high angle shot will show him looking up at the bedroom window as 'Melanie' comes to the window and looks out, it then cuts to a low angle shot of her looking down on the candle and we see a medium close up of the main character's face illuminated by the candle light.

The last scene we see is of the main character at the front door of her house with a banner saying "I love you" then melanie slams the door, this is shown as a point of view shot. this again uses match on action from the point of view of mel to the view of the main character. The door will slam on the last beat and it will fade to black.

9. audience

Our target audience is going to be university/college students, this is because the brand figure for the band we are going to create is going to be funny and not taking things too seriously. As this audience is the best suited to this life style we thought this would be our best suited target audience. The age range will be between 15 and 24 year olds. They will be people up for a laugh, still a bit tight with their money but they love a good laugh. They enjoy a relaxed life style and love indie music. Both genders will enjoy but I think that the majority of the audience will be men.

We will engage the audience in various ways, we will try to make the audience relate to the song to a certain extent because after all everyone understands the concept of liking a girl that doesn't like you back. But we will engage the audience mostly through exaggeration and humor, using such filming devices as; over the shoulder shots of him following the girl, 2 shots of him following her, close ups and high angle shots.
The mise en scene of the music video is also going to be important, we need to make sure that the lighting isn't too dull as it is a comedy song and if it were to be too dull then it would dampen the mood. The location also need to be ordinary everyday places as it is portraying a girl going about her everyday business and she is being followed by this guy. Prop are also important to make the music video authentic.
The mise en scene should also appeal to the target audience.

8d. Visual Associations

Sublime - Date Rape




This song creates visual associations in the mind, images that you expect to see in the music video.
The fast drums (hi-hat) make you think of the story being told is quick and snappy, the instruments also give a happy feel to the song so you would expect to see the characters happy.
Most of the song is sung to you in a story way which helps you imagine what is happening in the story. The guitar solo helps you imagine that it the part of the song where it goes wrong for the woman. as it carries on after by singing "he finished up, he started the car"

All of the visual association helps you to sympathize for the woman and despise the "Date raper"

8c. Editing

3Oh!3 - Starstruck





In the intro to the song the cuts are quick showing girls turning round, these cuts go with the quick cymbal beat. To show the girls intrest as they take the coins out of the fountain.

Much of this music video is montage editing because it shows people taking coins from the founting then it shows the reactions to people nearby. They also cut to random scenes such as the singers on a boat and them clay pigeon shooting with a vinyl.

before the chourus' there is a bit where the beat gets faster and the cut between the 2 scenes are cut on the beat.

Most of the cuts are just normal cuts from one clip to another, no fancy swip cuts or anything but there is one cut where they are rock climbing where it zooms in and cuts to them.

8b.Mise en Scené

Musiq Soulchild - Buddy


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hpdurzHfpNY

The mise en scene straight away is very crisp, props are stylish and connotes class and luxury, such as the saxophones and trumpets. the clothing connotes stylish and well dressed, the lighting connotes peace and calmness.

This connotations are important for the image of the music video, if not thought through carefully enough it ill rune the music video.

The setting of the sidewalk next to a busy road shows the audience that its just a normal road on a usual day but the way he is acting show the way he has been captivated by this girl.
The lighting also connotes happiness.

When the video cuts to the night and he is dressed in casual clothes this connotes to the audience that this is an average night for him; partying and having fun.
The lighting on them show that the 'spot light is on them'.
The location of the party also connotes socializing and fun, the calm lighting helps support this.

8a. Shot types and how they work

Fountains of Wayne - Stacy's Mum






Straight away there is a tracking shot of peoples feet stood stationery, connoting waiting and boredom. Then the juxtapositioning of the shot of Stacy's mum pulling up and the kid shows excitement and thrill and then the juxtapose of her mum geting out the car and the kids stood waiting connotes amazement.

The shots of her mum getting out of the car and getting back in are shot from a lower level than normal and when she gets out you can't see her head. This is to emphasis the low sports car and to draw attention to her legs and clothing. this works because you can see the kids 'gorping' in the background.

The shot of her mum in the house is always shot through blinds, this is to create a physical barrier between you and her, to show the audience that he can have her.

The use of medium close up shots of the characters show their reactions/feeling. For example when Stacy's mum come out with a towel on, there are medium close up shot of Stacy, The boy and the masseuse. Stacy's expressions show's her happiness for him being there but the boy show his reation to Stacy's mum walking outside with just a towel on. And the Masseuse show's his luck to be massageing her. Whereas there is no medium close up of Stacy's mum, this shows her lack of intrest for the boy, which creates irony because it sings "I could tell she liked me from the way she stared." but infact she isn't looking at him in the video.

8. Researching into music video's alike

Logically, just like any other media product, production of it is adapted to suit and engage the target audience. With this key rule I am going to research similar genre music video's and highlight why they (or do not) engage the target audience and also how they accomplish this.

One music video that is in the same genre as Cosmo Jarvis' Mel's Song, is Wheatus - Teenage Dirtbag


This song is aimed a love struck teenagers. You can tell from this music video that it is targeting teenagers (from 13 - 19), People who can be perceived as 'outcasts' and 'rejects'.
This is portrayed through the main character, the video uses affective use of representation. One way the video represents the audience is with the slow motion shot of the girl walking past him to emphasize the contrast in looks/personality of the characters, it also identifies the main characters 'crush'. The long shots and mid shots of everyone pushing into him also represents him being an 'outcast', the mid shot of him being pushed on the floor also connotes the lack of care for the character.
All of which engages the target audience.
As the main character is represented this way we want to represent our main character in a similar way, but with a comical affect as we don't want it to be serious as our song has a vital difference to Teenage Dirtbag; The main character doesn't win the girl in the end of the video.

This is an Illustrating music video, because it tells the story in which the lyrics describe and it is also conventional for the genre of the music. The editing pace is also slow to accompany the tempo of the song and it also allows the viewer to understand what is happening in the story, clearly and effectively.



Another video that I have researched is Redhot Chilli Peppers - Can't Stop.



I chose this music video to research because of it's comical value and I would like to research how it reaches the target audience (similar target audience to ours). firstly the video relates to the audience through the mise en scene.
Lighting
The lighting is clear and bright through out the video, connoting fun and laughter. This is important for the audience, because if the lighting is dull then much of the comical value will be lost.

Costume
Costume is also key to relating to the audience. The cast in the music video have similar clothing to the target audience, this engages the audience as they can relate to the cast.

Props
Props can engage the audience greatly. for example in this music video the use of musical instruments will engage the audience as the target audience is musicians, the use of random and weird objects (eg chairs, buckets, pilot lights, etc) engages the audience because the target audience are spontaneous people who enjoy a laugh from doing obscure and instantaneous things

Set/Location
The set that the video is recorded in is very clear and plain, connoting to the audience that they are a pure band, a very honest band.




Blink 182 - First Date



I chose to analyze this song because the song type is extremely close to our song, it is comical and about love. The camera angel, movements and shots are important in the creation of a music video.
In this music video, when the band is shown playing, they are shown playing together, there are virtually no single shots of them playing. If there is the other band members will be in the back ground or the cut will be quick. This is to establish who the band are quickly.
One quirky shot in the video is when there is a 2 shot of the band members in the camper van and it has foged up and they are trying to wipe away the fog.
Much of the camera movement is panning shot to follow cast, to suggest and connote movement to reflect the fast beat of the song.


I have researched and looked for other music video's in the same music genre and here are a few that i have found, and why they fit into a similar genre as our music video;
3Oh!3 - Starstruck this music video is comical, aimed at a similar age and it is about love.
Go Audio - She Left Me because he is considered to be acting abnormal and it is about wanting her.
Fountains of Wayne - Stacy's Mum this music video is very similar to what we are trying to achieve as it is about a boy obsessed about her friends mum.
Bloodhound Gang - The Ballad of Chasey Lain this music video is about fancying someone it is extremely comical.
Sublime - Date Rape this is a rock punk rock song about tricking a girl into sleeping with him its comical value would appeal to our audience.
Musiq Soulchild - Buddy this music video is about being mesmerized by a girl and following her hoping the she will be his 'buddy'
Weird Al - Do I Creep You Out because this video is about stalking a girl and following her and being obsessed about a girl. Its comical value is almost the same to what we hope to achieve.

7. Request of song use.

We have emailed the artist to ask permission to use their song in our music video. We spoke to Cosmo Jarvis' manager as apposed to the artist him self, but we have recieved good news; we can use the music for the production of our music video. The only thing that they ask from us is that we show them the end result of our music video.

6. Treatment

Concept: Obsessive rejection: A Young attractive female is stuck on a guys mind. He madly loves her, yet he looks horrific, dirty and tramp like. This sets off clear rejection but this guy won't give up and essentially stalks his "dream girl".

Audience: My audience is university students/ teenagers who enjoy a fairly relaxed lifestyle and enjoy indie music. Both males and females can enjoy the song but our main focus would be males due to the lyrics and songs meaning. Students also enjoy going to local gigs which are often cheap and near campus. Establishing a new artist like Cosmo Jarvis would start at different universities slowly picking up a fan base.

Overall style and look: The music video itself will contain quirky young performers. The story will be a teenager who idolises a certain girl that every boy wants getting rejected time and time again. We plan to make these rejections humorous by perceiving the main role as “lazy” “unhygienic” and generally repulsive. The video does need to tell a story yet be funny and contain the artist. We plan to use stop motion, a series of jump shots and change of focus to move from character to character.

The videos we are currently influenced by include “Wheatus – Teenage Dirtbag” “ Beautiful South – A Little time” “ Cosmo Jarvis – Maxine “ These videos were chosen for connoting the same story. “ A little time “ uses great camera depth and brings characters into the scenes really well. Although our video is similar to Wheatus in the story sense we are not going to completely copy it. We plan to combine the narrative and actual band members playing. The band will be miming as electricity and learning the notes could be difficult. The videos we want to be different from are disjuncture types of videos such as Red hot chilli peppers californication. We want the lyrics to tell a story (Illustrating).

The technology we will need to use is: A video camera – This will be for the actual filming of the music video, Possibility of Lighting – Dependant on location we may use lighting sets to help remove any unwanted shadows and add specific affects. Possibility of using coloured gels to add a darker affect and mood. Digital SLR Camera – This is for the album artwork cover (Digi pack) and our magazine advert. This makes sense to do this whilst filming so we don’t need to ask our cast to wear the same clothes and wait for the same type of weather etc.. Possible prop. Quark express – This software will be used for editing and putting together our digi-pack and album artwork. Furthermore it will be used for our magazine advert. This advert is a key part of promoting our product and establishing the new artist’s brand. Adobe Premier Pro – This will be used for editing and putting together our video.

The sort of personal – The cast we have chosen our a set of friends we both know well. We decided on friends because we know which character suits who. They are easy to contact as we already see and have numbers, and most importantly reliable.

Date and Provisional schedule. 28th September - Finish Pitch and present 29th September30th Wed – Begin filming / introduce reiterate plot to cast. Research and planning3 & 4th October – Begin proper filming 10 and 11th October _ continue filming .

Likely problems: the weather – very unreliable needs to be dry (lighting). There is also the possibility of the casts’ health / illness. This can come up however we do have a backup cast lined up should anything occur. Camera availability - this shouldn’t be a huge problem as long as we book out the camera in time, using clear planning this should be okay. Possible Costs Petrol – Driving to locations, picking up cast. Props – sorting out outfits and accessories for cast. Transport: Bus’s aren’t always reliable, cast live far away. Not everyone can drive, car could breakdown. However I have full backing off my parents and my own car so I do have two options should one fail.

Health and safety issues: Weather – Slippery surfaces could be dangerous to cast and ruin equipment. Clear assessment on each scheduled day of filming will be made before we begin. Over heating from lighting equipment if not monitored properly. If using the lighting we would have to monitor it properly to avoid this.

5. Genre and Auteur

The genre theory is the idea of conventionality and the conventions of the genre is followed, where as auteur theory is the creativity used in the production of the media texts, ideas that the author has interpreted into the production of the media text, making things original and fresh.

In the past year and a half working on media and developing my skills, I believe that I have stuck tightly to the genre theory in creating my media tasks, but I also believe I have tried to incorporate auteur theory into the tasks.
I have not tried to challenge the conventions for example in my first practice film task I have used conventions such as match on action, 180 degree rule and the rule of thirds. But I have tried to be creative and make it more interesting to the viewer by making more than, just a video of two people talking, by adding a cut away shot of the person pretending that he has made loads of friends.

another example the genre theory in my work is my magazine coursework, my approach to this task was very much through influences, and I followed much of the conventions that came with the genre of music magazine that I was producing. My largest auteurest inclusion in this task was the mysterious main sell as the genre is typical of bright colours and then the main sell is dark and mysterious in contrast to the rest of the magazine.

4. Redundancy and Entropy

Any Image we see either in pictures or video's, are either a Redundant image or an Entropic image.
Even though I say an image can either be redundant or entropic, there is always levels of both in every single image you see, no matter how strongly redundant or entropic they look.

A Redundant image is an image which is simplistic and understandable for the viewer. In media texts this is important for the audience to see as they need to understand what is happening, but too much redundancy can bore the reader and be uninteresting for the audience.

An Entropic image is an image that is harder for the audience to understand, something that the viewer least expects and also slightly confuses the audience. This is also important in media texts, as it captures the audiences attention and engages them. But too much Entropy can cause the viewer to be completely baffled and unable to understand anything about the media text.

It is important to get the right balance of redundancy and entropy depending on circumstances and genre of the media text.

In our plans for our media coursework I think we have large amounts of redundancy and maybe lacking concepts of entropy. In music video's entropy is a large key to keeping the audience engaged in the video. We have resolved this by adding short clips intended to be entropic, such as the stalker outside the girls house in front of candles spelling out "I love you", and comical scenes with 'rock band' instruments as replacements to normal instruments.

3. Pitch and Feedback to our Pitch

The song that we have chosen to produce a music video for is Cosmo Jarvis - Mel's Song

I and my project partner have discussed ideas for an idea of a music video to go with 'Cosmo Jarvis - Mel's song' and we have produced a few key concepts of the music video. We then put these ideas and concepts into a pitch to share our ideas with the class. This is our pitch:

Media Cioursework

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Feedback.
While we showed and performed our pitch to the class, they observed and commented on what they thought of our ideas. Some of these comments have helped the ideas to become more solid and have more reasoning as to why we what to produce this effect/connotations/idea.

One comment stated that "It's a shame you can't use the actual artist" But the reason is largely due to logistics and also the use of the artist is not relevant because it is portraying a man obsessed about a woman but If we were to connote the artist as this man it would send the listeners/viewers the wrong message, and the audience would then associate the artist as a "stalker". We are going to keep these 2 identities separate by showing the band playing in the background as the stalker walks past them, this allows the audience to distinguish between the stalker and the artist.

Another comment that has helped me in my planning, says "They've considered problems... but haven't stated what they'd do if they actually happened." This has made me consider how we could resolve these problems, for example if there is an actors illness on the day we would have to find a new actor that fits our requirements, or we could alternatively (if possible) film with out the actor on the day and when they are better film their part.

Another comment said " I like the idea, very similar to the wheatus video though and other music videos I've seen." although I think our idea is similar to wheatus I do not think we have copied it. We have not intentionally come up with an idea that has been made before, we have been influenced by other videos but we have interpreted our own ideas into the video. We have used wheatus as a demonstration of our ideas rather than our intentions to copy.

One comment that came to my attention was "Relying on weather could be hard; filming on different days could mean the lighting will be different." We have realised this and we hope to record the whole video in the same day, this could be very hard and intensive on the actors so at the very minimum we will record all the outside shot on the same day and in the shortest amount of time possible to avoid weather change.

In response to all our feedback I have considered concepts of our project more deeply and thought through it more thoroughly.

2. Research into music video's

There are many different types of music video's, all of which attempt to engage the audience correctly and effectively.

One important aspect of music video production is synaesthesia - the images conjured up by the listeners mind. This is important be cause if it is something completely different to what the viewer is actually seeing then it can produce and entropic effect, which could be useful in context but could be useless otherwise.


Kano - Rock n Roller




This illustrating video connotes wealth, 'swagger' and living the 'rockstar' life, this links up with the lyrics of the song , for example in the chorus he sings "my credit don't crunch, my swaggers insane" while in the background it shows a credit card shattering and notes connoting his wealth and riches. He also brushes himself off when he sings "my swaggers insane", this connotes his persona, demeanour and his attire.
The tempo of the song is moderate to fast and the cuts are in time with the beat. Jump cuts and quick editing is inserted when the music gets faster.
The genre of Kano is rap/dance and this genre is typical of boasting about wealth, money and clothes. So this song followed the conventions of the genre. The use of girls dancing in strobe lighting and fast cuts follows the convention of typical dance videos. Girls in revelling clothes follow the stereotypical forms and conventions of a rap video.


The Enemy - Away From Here






This music video visually relates to the song by illustrating the lyrics, for example when the singer sings "Away from here" there are cuts of planes and train tickets. This video is relevant to the genre by using the forms and conventions of the rock genre. Hectic, Loud and rebellious connotations are perceived through out.

Fatboy Slim - Push the Tempo




This video is very amplifying as we assume from the title that the song is about a fast song, but what is denoted in the video is people uncontrollably moving about, connoting craziness, uncontrollable and madness. this is video follows conventions to a certain degree as normally in dance genre videos you see people dancing and this video is connoting that the music is making them move. But this video breaks conventions by having it located in a foreign village rather than a club or in a place that connotes dance and fun.

Fatboy Slim - Weapon of Choice




This music video is completely disjuncture from the song, as the song is about a metaphorical weapon of choice. But the video completely doesn't relate to the song as it is just a man dancing through a hotel. the continuous editing of the man dancing means the cuts are not quick as the cut needs to give the viewer long enough to understand what is happening, Even though the song is a fast tempo. The use of editing is affective; especially when the music stops and builds back up again, this is shown visually by the opening of the lift doors.

1. A2 - music video production

Welcome to my A2 Media Studies blog, through which I am going to take you through the journey of my coursework, everything from planning to production.

Our class has been given the option to chose to do either music video or children’s TV drama. I have chosen to do music video.

This will include the production of our music video, a digi-pack and a magazine advert for the digipack.

The music video will be produced with a partner and our digi-pack and magazine advert will be produced individually.