G324 – A2 GROUP COURSEWORK-

EXAMPLES OF GOOD WORK

The following slides are excellent examples of candidate’s evaluating their final product. Each provides key moments taken from their own text and that of others to support their claim.

Excellent use of specialist media terminology and appropriate references to academic theory. Each presentation is produced with care and genuine critical reflection

Name of the band. We followed the basic convention of displaying the band’s name as the band cannot sell records or become a household name, without having a name.

Followed the convention of placing the record label logo below the release date.

We followed the basic convention of displaying the release of the album so that out target audience know when to buy the album.

We also linked followed typical convention by linking in a colour theme with all the other media products. For our media production, we used the colour blue to link our products together as it represents hope and a fresh start.

Unfortunately, I was unable to find an indie magazine advert that displayed a star rating however Hannah managed to find one therefore we included it for our audience to judge whether the band are credible or not.

As you can see, all of the above magazine adverts contain the release date, record label logo, name of the band and album. However, my group went against convention displaying our band members on the magazine advertisement. From my research I only found one band (Razorlight) who were on their magazine advertisement. My group and I felt it was important to put our band members on the advertisement to establish them as being a credible indie band. Also, the fact they are first time artists it is even more important for them to be featured so that they can establish a direct connection with their target audience.

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge

forms and conventions of real media products?

Arfa Shah 4739

GoodwinGoodwin’’s theorys theoryIn my music video, my group and I constructed a performance element and narrative element that would demonstrate the main characteristics of music videos as identified by Goodwin.His theory states that all music videos:

1.Music videos demonstrate genre characteristics

2.There is a relationship between lyrics and visuals

3.There is a relationship between music and visuals

4.Close ups of the artist

5.Notion of looking

6.Intertextual reference

GENRE CHARACTERISTICSGENRE CHARACTERISTICSThe main genre characteristic of an indie music video is the inclusion of a performance element. The main point of a performance in an indie music video is to display the band’s authentic image and to further emphasise the indie “Do It Yourself” ethos.Another genre characteristic of an indie band is that they are very image orientated because they are seen as fashion idols to their fans. In the “You’re All I Have” music video, the band members are wearing casual, laid back clothing which stresses the indie look. Similarly, for our media production we did the same and made the band members where casual clothing. Also, we also made each band member wear some sort of blue clothing whether it be blue jeans or a blue top.

We used the performance and image convention because we know that performance and image is what makes up the band and makes them known to their target audience.

Snow Patrol “You’ve All I have” performance element

A2 Media Production performance element

NARRATIVE ELEMENTNARRATIVE ELEMENTThe inclusion of a narrative element is very sparse in indie music videos therefore we went against indie convention. Whilst conducting my research, I found that all of my music videos were based on performances. However, my group and I came to the conclusion that we should include a narrative element in order for our target audience to understand the band and their music. We wanted the target audience to know that our band can touch upon sensitive issues and still perform at the same time. Including a linear narrative element is mainstream however by creating a fragmented narrative in our music video, we went against indie convention. Also, my group and I made use of Barthe’s enigma code at the end of the music video to leave the audience thinking who handed the female the blue scarf. By doing this I believe we peaked the interest of our target audience and left them with something to think about.

The performance element fragmented the narrative by switching between the band and story.

Use of Barthe’s enigma code.

RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN LYRICS AND RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN LYRICS AND VISUALS VISUALS

In my research, I found that some indie music videos tend to have a relationship between lyrics and visuals. In “You’re All I Have” by Snow Patrol illustrative lyrics are used, when the lead singer sings “electric shock on aching bones”, the audience can see an electric shock on the microphone.In my music video, there is an illustrative between the lyrics and visuals. Only some videos contain a direction relationship between lyrics and visuals therefore we went against typical indie convention.

Illustrative:

The song is about hope and strength therefore we used a colour motif of blue to symbolise this as blue represents hope and a fresh start. We used a blue scarf (above), blue door and the band members each wore a piece of blue clothing.

RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN MUSIC AND RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN MUSIC AND VISUALS VISUALS

From my research I found that indie music videos contained a very strong relationship between music and visuals. For example in Interpol’s “Obstacle 1” music video, when the lead singer is singing his actions are shown; when the drummer is drumming the audience can see this and also when the guitar instrumentals are introduced, it is displayed on screen. In my music video, when the lead singer is singing, he’s shown with the use of a close up. Furthermore, when the guitar is prominent, there is a close up of one member playing the guitar. Also, towards the end of the song, the drumming in the music is very prominent and therefore we chose to do a medium shot of James playing the drum to demonstrate this. We used the indie convention of illustrating the relationship between music and visuals in order to make our music video as authentic as possible. However the relationship is only illustrative to an extent, the narrative element fragments the performance element which makes the music video more diverse.

Close up of the artist Close up of the artist

Goodwin’s theory states that a close up of the artist is needed to meet the demands of the record label. I found that in all indie music videos, a heavy emphasis is placed on the lead singer. Many close ups of the lead singer as well as the band members are used to establish the band as a whole. We followed this convention and used many close ups, medium close ups and long shot to establish each individual member and the band as a whole. In my music video, my group and I also used close ups of the lead singer, guitarists and the drummer as well as shots of the group as a whole.

Notion of looking Notion of looking Goodwin’s theory states that is a notion of looking and voyeuristic treatment of the female body present in the music video. However, in indie music videos there is very little notion of looking or voyeuristic treatment of the female body. It was mainly in “Obstace 1” by Interpol where there was a notion of looking toward the female however no voyeuristic treatment.In our music video, there was a moment where the female looked at her phone and stroked the picture of her and her boyfriend during happier times. We decided to include this in order to make clear to the audience that the two leads had a romantic relationship. In a sense we went against indie convention because only very few indie music videos (from my research) displayed a notion of looking.

High angle shot of female dancing in “Obstable 1” by Interpol.

Close up of female looking at her phone in our A2 media production

Intertextual reference Intertextual reference Intertextual references to other media products were not common in media music videos. However, we went against this convention and made subtle intertextual references to various media products. We took inspiration from many non-indie media products and tried our best to turn them into indie products. For example the idea of domestic abuse came to us after much brainstorming and I showed my group a domestic abuse campaign advert in which Keira Knightley starred in- from there we got the idea for a violent relationship however we played this down in our music video by not showing actual violence, but only implying it (e.g. when the male lead knocks down the camera, he is actually knocking down the female).

Keira Knightley domestic abuse advert (above) with the abuse scenes in our music video (below)

Male lead hits camera,we implied that he hitThe female.

Male aggressively picking up the female.

Keira Knightley Domestic Campaign Link

Intertextual reference Intertextual reference We also looked at “Love The Way You Lie” by Eminem feat. Rihanna as it was another music video based on relationship abuse. We were inspired by Megan Fox’s eye contact with the camera in the music video therefore the female lead in our music video, Veena, looked straight at the camera in order to establish an emotional connection with the audience. We chose to go against convention because my group and I wanted to include more than just a performance element in our music video. We wanted to include a narrative that made subtle references to other media products in order to make our music video more captivating, memorable and emotional.

“Love The Way You Lie” music video

Veena looking straight at the camera in our A2 media production in

reference to Megan Fox’s character in “Love The Way You Lie” music

video by Eminem feat. Rihanna

How did you use media technologies in the construction

and research, planning and evaluation stages?

Arfa Shah 4739

I used Youtube in order to analyse 5 music videos for my research. YouTube allowed me to play, replay, pause and screen grab various moments of music videos so that I could highlight various codes and conventions and analyse the affect of the codes and conventions, the relationship between lyrics and visuals and the genre characteristics.

Also, through YouTube, Hannah uploaded the first cut and final cut of our music video.

And Research

Screen grab of the upload tool on YouTube.

By using YouTube's embed option for each music video, I was able to embed my work to Facebook which made it easier for people on my Facebook to view and comment on my final music video. Also, I was able to embed our final music video onto my planning/construction blog which made it easier for me to access my work anytime through Blogger.

and Planning and Construction

Screen grab of YouTube’s embed option .

By using YouTube's embed option for each video, I was able to embed my video response to a question onto YouTube and then embed it into blogger. I also used YouTube to upload my audio response to the audience feedback question. YouTube allowed me to upload my video and audio response with ease and the embedding option made it easier for me to access my video through my blog rather than following various link to other sites.

and Evaluation

Screen grab of my video response from YouTube.

Screen grab of my audio response from YouTube.

I used Slideshare to upload my PowerPoint presentations and Microsoft World documents. By uploading my work onto Slideshare I found it easier to transfer my work onto my research, planning/construction and evaluation blogs because I only had to copy and paste in the embed code. Slideshare made it easier for me to transfer my work and make my work look more visually appealing. For example in my planning blog I created my group’s timetable of frees using PowerPoint and then I uploaded it onto Slideshare and then copied and pasted the embed code onto Blogger; this saved a lot of time and allowed me to concentrate on more lengthy tasks.

Blogger allowed me to create posts that detailed my findings for my research, planning/construction and evaluation blogs and it also allowed me to post my film schedules, pictures and final products etc. By allowing me to create posts, I found it easier to cross-reference my work and go from post to post without any difficulty. Using Blogger, I embedded pictures, videos and various documents and this made it easier for me because I could access all of my work through one location rather than going through various files on my computer to find them thus saving time.

I used PowerPoint as a means to convey my analysis on my research, planning/construction and evaluation blogs. I used PowerPoint to lay out my research of music videos, codes and conventions, magazine research, album research, timetable of frees etc. PowerPoint allowed me to create a clear layout of my work by allowing me to insert pictures, texts and arrows to make my work appear more clear. PowerPoint is also an example of how I used different technologies to convey my work. Rather than always posting my work, I used PowerPoint to add variety to my research and to make my blog look more attractive.

Once I took photos for our digipak and magazine advertisement, Leon and I set about editing the digipak pictures on Adobe Photoshop whilst Hannah edited 2 photos for our magazine advertisement. Using Adobe, we began to construct our digipak and Leon and I edited 4 photos using various tools. Leon edited the back cover of the digipak and I edited the front cover. Once we completed both of the outside covers, me, Leon and Hannah met up after school and finished the inside left and began work on the inside right. Adobe Photoshop allowed me to change the size, colour, saturation and brightness of the image. It also allowed me to add texts such as the copyright notice and introduction of the band along with the band’s signature using the “hand of sean” font I downloaded from dafont.com.

Motion blur tool used for inside right of digipak.

Image size tool used to change dimensions of all

templates.

I used dafont to find the right font for the band’s digipak cover and magazine advertisement. As I was researching the font, I kept on showing them to my group and eventually we narrowed it down to 4 fonts and ended up choosing “planet estyle” as our font. Dafont allowed me to research a wide range of fonts to make our ancillary tasks look more appealing rather than choosing the basic fonts on Adobe. By choosing the “planet estyle” and “hand of sean” fonts, our products are different, dynamic and more attractive.

Through Facebook, I was able to access my target audience directly and ask them for their opinions. On Facebook I posted my group’s first edit and final edit of our music video, the magazine advertisement and digipak and asked for feedback. From the feedback on Facebook, we made many improvements to all of our products. For example, for the first edit of our music video many people commented on the stability of the camera, Hannah took that on board and tried her best to stabilise the camera on iMovie for our final edit of the music video.

We used a Samsung digital camera throughout the whole process of making our music video and ancilliary tasks in order to display pictures of us planning and constructing all 3 products. For example there are pictures of me doing the storyboard, finding the font, measuring the drum kit and door and taking the photos for our digipak and magazine advertisement. Leon took all of the above pictures as he was the group’s photographer.

For the digipak and magazine advertisement, I used a professional Canon camera. This was the first time I ever used a professional camera and I only had an hour to practise with it before the actual shooting because the camera was borrowed from my media teacher and we only had access to it on the actual day of the shooting. The camera was key in producing visually appealing pictures for our digipak and magazine advertisement and after editing the pictures I uploaded them onto my planning blog with feedback from Facebook.

We used a professional HD video camera to film both performance and narrative elements of our music video. The professional HD camera helped us produce a music video that was of a higher quality and by using it we learned more about different camera forms and different functions of a HD camera. The professional HD camera helped in constructing our music video and by actually creating a music video, we were able to edit and upload the contents on to YouTube, Facebook and Blogger.