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Finshed Advert

Finished Digipak

Finished Music Video

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

Evaluation Question 3 - What have you learned for your audience feedback?

Evaluation Question 2 - How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts (DVD digipak, Magazine advert)?

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

Constructing the Advert

Constructing The Digipak

I took original photos of the band members standing behind a blank wall for our digipak, I told them to stand behind a blank wall as it would make it easier for us to edit on Adobe Photoshop.

On Adobe Photoshop, I was exposed to all types of tools, effects and filters that could be used to enhance our digipak. We also experimented with a variety of fonts.

Editing the Music Video

After we finished filming the shots we needed for our music video at the various locations we went to, we uploaded all the footage onto a computer and started to edit the music video using Adobe Premiere Pro. We used one particular shot as our master shot, adding shots over this and matching the speed of the shots to go with the beat of the song we used. We also made sure we would to cut to as many shots as possible to create the feel of the video being fast paced as it is a convention seen in so many other music videos. 

A lot of mistakes were made at first as seen in our rough cut with common ones being that the  visuals were not lip synced to the music or particular shots were either too long or too short. We were, however, finally able to come up with a final cut of our music video.

Audience Research/Feedback

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• Results from the survey found that it was mostly females aged from around 24 downwards that watched music videos, with Youtube and VEVO being the preferred mode of watching it. 

• Results from the focus groups revealed certain flaws within our music video such as us not using shot transitions or us not using that many locations and how we could improve it. Good things were also pointed out such as how we used a variety of high and low angle shots.

Filming the Music Video (Part 1)

 

During December, we as a group decide to go to the Winterville Winter Festival at Victoria Park, Mile End to film some scenes for our music video. As the song we used for our music video is mostly about that time of regret after the end of a relationship, we thought filming scenes of the couple enjoying the time they had together and the man coming back to reminisce about those times he had would amplify and illustrate the actual song's message.

Rough Cut

We presented a rough cut of what would potentially be our finished music video to a couple of people,  asking what could be done to improve the overall feel of the music video. They advised us that we should make the general speed of editing quicker by changing shots or making them shorter and also we should make sure that the first shots of the music video are properly lip synced to the song.  

 

Case Study - Jamie Thraves

Jamie Thraves was a director, made short films at University, using his award-winning short films as a 'calling card' to get a 'foot in the door' with the video production company Factory Films.

He began his music video by shooting three very low budget music videos, costing about £5,000 each.

Being a music video director could be seen as a precarious existence where their livelihood is dependent on commission gotten from the music videos he/she makes; Thraves submitted treatments for his two best known videos and each was accepted by the production companies he sent them to.

He has a unique talent of making his videos look like short films due to the storylines that were incorparated into them.

One of his most popular music videos was for the song "Just" by Radiohead. He directed and filmed the entire video in just three days, using a budget of £100,000.  

The music video which was shot near Liverpool Street Station, features Radiohead performing in an apartment while in front the apartment they are performing in, a man is lying down on the pavement. People around the man start to wonder what is going on and start gathering around him, even the band are looking at this man and the crowd which have surrounded him.  Through the use of subtitles, we can see a conversation between the man and the crowd surrounding him, the crowd extremely curious about the reason he is lying there. After much fierce questioning, the man begins to tell them the reason why he is there, he starts pleading for divine forgiveness and intervention for him and the crowd, and tells them the actual reason. However, the subtitles stop as the man says the reason, leaving it to the viewer’s interpretation. After he says the reason, the pavement is then shown to be covered with the crowd of people, all lying down just like the man. Thraves uses the code of enigma very well in the video, as the main reason people are continuing to watch the video is so that they can find out the reason the initial man and crowd were laying on that pavement and therefore solve the enigma posed in the video. This could be classed as a contradicting music video under Goodwin’s theory, as the lyrics do not match what is going on within the music video.

Another well known music video for the song "The Scientist" by Coldplay. He also directed and filmed the entire video in three days, instead using a budget of £200,000.

This music video was rather noted for its use of reverse narration and employing reverse video. In order for to make it seem that Chris Martin, the lead singer, appear to sing the lyrics in the reversed footage, he had to learn the song backwards. The video opens with Martin singing while he is lying on a mattress outside.  A cyclist cycles past in reverse and Martin leaps up from the mattress. He begins walking in reverse through the city, crossing a railway line and heads out into the woods, picking up a suit jacket he must have dropped as he’s walking. After walking in reverse he arrives what we can assume is his car, he gets in and briefly passes out.  A woman, who was at first lying unresponsive on the ground in front of the car, is shown flying back in through the shattered windshield of the car. The car begins to roll back up a hill in the woods and through a broken fence, which fixes itself as the car passes back through it. As the video closes, the couple is shown driving back up the road. It is then revealed to the viewer what had happened to Martin and the woman, she had removed her seat belt, in order to put her jacket on, just before the car accident, causing her death.

Jamie's Top Tips
Jamie believes that the best music videos depict the lyrics but try not to be too literal with them, he believes you go with the emotion behind the lyrics aswell.

Case Study - Emil Nava

Emil Nava began his career as a runner for many different film production companies, one of which was Blink Productions. A runner is an entry-level position, the most junior role in the production department of a broadcast, film or video company. 

After working as a runner for a while, he graduated to Assistant Director where he would manage the video shoots and signed to Academy - who are the biggest music video production company. He then worked for Between The Eyes and now works mainly for Pulse, freelancing for QB Management.

Emil's first budget was for the band Kid British's track Our House. He was given £20,000 as budget for the video, which was located in Manchester and used the local people from the area as the cast. The entire music video was filmed and edited in three days, using ten days for pre-production. This demonstrates the skill used by music video directors to work under very tight timescales.

At his busiest, Emil made 24 music video in one year; when he began shooting videos for independent labels, the budgets he would be given would range from around £5,000 to £10,000. His most expensive video to date has been for Jessie J, with a budget of £160,000. This shows that for the director the more successful they are, the larger the budgets they may have for the music videos they will be required to make.

He was called upon by Sony to direct the music video for the song "Picking Up The Pieces" by Paloma Faith; with a budget of £80,000. This is 4x more the budget he had for his first video, which resulting in a higher quality in production. The picture quality is much better than his first video, mise en scene featuring very elegant house and designed to look very posh.

Also called upon by Island to direct the video for "Do It Like A Dude" by Jessie J, with the budget for the music video being £25,000.  Around the same budget as his first video, he uses what it seems to an abandoned building, the music video is very gritty with the cast smoking cigarrettes and wearing street clothes. It looks realistic, depicting activities that the youth of today would actually do. 

Apart from making music videos, he has now begun to make adverts, which generally have larger budget and production values but lack the allowance for creative freedom from the director. One of which for the L'Oreal Feria Hair campaign. This could be due the time allowed for the entire advert (20 seconds) and the emphasis on focusing on the product being advertised.

His Advice and Tips

Emil says that when filming a music video, that "extreme close ups should be used on faces whenever possible" and "to not shoot the whole video in medium shot/wide shot".  An example of a music video which uses this very well is for Sinead O'Connor song "Nothing Compares to You", her face alone is shown throughout, making a real bold statement. The lyrics present the feelings of longing from an abandoned lover's point of view, fitting with the music video, as it is sad and gloomy.

Sexism In Pop Videos

In 2013, "Blurred Lines" by Robin Thicke and "Wrecking Ball" by Miley Cyrus provoked controversy due to the way they portrayed women as sexual objects. There is a lot of controversy surrounding the treatment of women within the music industry, with many seeing it as being sexist against women.

·Laura Mulvey's Male Gaze theory tries to explain why this is the case by suggesting that the male gaze denies women human identity, relegating them to the status of objects to be admired for physical appearance.  The theory suggests women can more often than not only watch a film from a secondary perspective and only view themselves from a man’s perspective.

·However, the presence of women in mainstream film texts is something that is vital, often a female character has no real importance herself, it is how she makes the male feel or act that is the importance; females only exist in relation to the male character’s choices and actions.

·The male gaze leads to hegemonic ideologies within our society, seeing men as the dominant or ruling group in society.

The music video for "Blurred Lines" by Robin Thicke is considered controversial due to the way the women in the video are treated by the men, the men seem to be the ones in control, dominant in their own right, treating the girls, who are almost naked, as little play dolls and making them perform their every command. The song itself has been a controversial topic as it has claims of being misogynistic and promoting date rape. 

This video does tie in to Mulvey’ theory, as the women are seen as objects of sexual desire for the men within the video and the audience consuming it. To further support this claim, there is an original version of this music video, one with the girls fully naked, this one shown above being the edited version due the original being removed form YouTube due to it violating the website’s terms of service.

The music video for “Wrecking Ball” also caused outrage due to sudden change of the artists’ image. Miley Cyrus was once known to the world as the sweet and innocent star of Hannah Montana, a very popular children’s show on Disney Channel, and was looked up to by girls from around the world. This video however was a huge contrast to the character she portrayed on that show as it seems she has ditched that image to take on a more sexualised one, I think she used this video to send a message to those who saw her as that Hannah Montana, saying she is now an independent woman, capable of making her own decisions.  Although others see it as being a publicity stunt, with her trying to gain more mainstream popularity and in turn, more revenue. 

The video itself is an amplified one, mostly consisting of her swinging on an actual wrecking ball, sometimes scantily clad or just naked. She is also makes use of props such as a hammer, performing what could be seen as sexual acts with it.

Lily Allen parodies the way women are treated in music video for “Hard Out Here”, especially the way black women are ‘showcased’ and reduced to ‘lurid props’ in most rap and hip-hop music videos. She wants society to be more feminist but with this video she seems to contradict herself as she still sexualises women in the video, maintaining the male gaze theory suggested by Mulvey. Although the actual song is quite feminist, as it promotes female empowerment.

Album Art Exercise

In today's lesson, we had to make our own album cover using Photoshop, we had to use random generators to get the artist name, album name, and the picture that would be used to make this cover. The artist and album name generated for me were "Tyrell 014" and "That's Their Fault"

Shot List

Shot List
Scene	Shot Number	Description
Scene 1 (shots 1-4) Scene 2 (shots 4 - 8) Scene 3 (shots 9 -	1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9	1. Medium Shot, Michael at  home calling girlfriend breaking up with her.  2. Long Shot, Royce singing in a band room  3. Long/Medium shot Michael walking out of his house and towards the train station 4. Medium shot Switch back to Royce in the music room with instrument and microphone 5. Low Angle Shot of Michael coming out of the station looking around the surroundings  6. Series of close up, medium and long shots of Royce in the music rooms.  7. Long Shot and eye line match of Michael finding the person he was looking for in central London.  8. Medium shot of Michael in discussion with female he meets, apologetic and affectionate.  9.

Case Study - Micheal Jackson

Michael Jackson was an American singer, songwriter, record producer and dancer. Often called the King of Pop, his very influential contributions to music and dance, along with his publicised personal life made him a global figure for over four decades.

Rockin ' Robin - Jackson 5 (1971)

Michael's first video was for the song 'Rockin' Robin', made when he was still apart of the Jackson 5. It is a very basic performance video, consisting of Michael and his brothers, lip syncing and playing their respective instruments.

Billie Jean (1982)

This was the first major music video to tell a story, and not just feature the artist lip sync to the song.

It is considered to be the music video that brought MTV, from a relatively unknown status, into mainstream attention. The story of this music video follows a photographer, who is trying to get picture of Michael and it also incorporates the start of him using his now iconic dance moves.

Thriller (1983)

This video really set a new benchmark in the way music videos would be made, costing about $500,000 to make. The director (John Landis) paid for the music as Jackson's record label had no intention of paying for it, the album was dropping in the charts and they had already provided the funds for two of the album's music videos.

Frequently considered to be the most famous music video of all time, it was the first music video to be added to the National Film Registry in 2009. It is considered a cultural milestone, because of the innovative ideas incorporated into the music video such as an elaborate choreography, costumes and dialogue and the concept of a long-form music video; which had a more mini-movie feel and could be edited down to make a shorter version. The video won awards for the Best Performance Video, Best Choreography and Viewers Choice at the first MTV Video Music Awards in 1984.

Bad (1987)

Following the success of his record breaking album 'Thriller' and the music videos that were made for the songs on the albums, Michael became the biggest pop star in the world. The release of his next music video, for the song 'Bad' was highly anticipated and seen as a major event, being covered on the news just based on the popularity of his former music videos and the star he had become.

The music video was shown for the time in the UK on the BBC at midnight, with millions waiting up to watch the video. Michael was going through a new phase of creativity, with a new image and a different style of dancing and people were excited to see this. In terms of the actual video, there were frequent close ups of Michael Jackson and a unique dance routine to accompany it.

Black or White (1991)

The music video for the song was very expensive for its time, costing four million dollars (with inflation, today it would cost $6,925,000). His appearance was changing as his skin colour was changing from black to white, causing outrage among a lot of black fans as they thought he was ashamed to black. He was using this video to try and resurrect his career, also trying to clear some of the rumours of people thinking he was strange.

The main message of this song was that people really shouldn't care about the skin colour of people when debating issues in society, promoting racial equality. He wants all his fans to unite together and not to judge him just on the basis of his appearance. It also features another of his iconic dance routines which is a reoccurring motif displayed in the majority of his music videos. 

Digipak and Magazine Advert

What is a Digipak?

Digipaks typically consist of a gatefold paperboard or card stock outer binding, with one or more plastic trays capable of holding a CD or DVD attached to the inside. It comes the CD comes in a cardboard flip-out case rather than a standard plastic hinged case.

Digipak-style packaging is often used for CD singles or special editions of CD albums and the tall DVD Digipak (DVDigipak) is used as a premium package for DVDs and DVD sets.

What is included in a Digipak?

• Photographs / Pictures - usually at least one will be of the artist(s) and another might be of a scene that reflects the mood / genre of the record.
• Tracklist including song writing credits.
• One box with a disk impression (perhaps a circle over an innocuous background thats shows where the disc will go or alternatively the design on the actual disk).
• A band / artist information section (names, instrumentals, additional musicians, copyright and year of release etc.) 
• Barcode, QR and a logo for the record company.
• Possibly reference to other albums by the same artist(s).

Analysis of PARTYNEXTDOOR (EP) digipack.

Analysis of Travi$ Scott - Owl Pharaoh (EP) digipack.

Narrative Theory - Todorov, Barthes, Propp, Field and Levi-Strauss

Narrative Theory refers the ways stories within media texts are organised and the ways audiences consume them.

Vladimir Propp, a Russian critic and literary theorist, analysed folk stories and proposed the idea to classify the characters and their actions into eight key character roles:

1. The Hero (Protagonist)
2. The Villain (Antagonist)
3. The Donor (Provider)
4. The Helper
5. The Father
6. The Dispatcher
7. The Princess
8. The False Hero

For example, films like Star Wars fit Propp's model precisely:

1. The Hero (Protagonist) - Luke Skywalker/Han Solo
2. The Villain (Antagonist) - Darth Vader
3. The Donor (Provider) - Obi-Wan Kenobi
4. The Helper - R2D2, C3PO, Chewbacca
5. The Father - Obi-Wan Kenobi
6. The Dispatcher - Princess Leia
7. The Princess - Princess Leia
8. The False Hero - Han Solo 

He also argued that the character could fulfill more than one of these roles and that there can be more than one of each character type.

Tzvetan Todorov, a Bulgarian literary theorist, suggests that most narratives having a structure to them

• They start off with a state of equilibrium, life for the protagonist is normal; there's not really any major problems for the protagonist to deal with. The protagonist might find them self happy and content.
• This state of equilibrium is the disrupted by the antagonist, causing a major problem for the protagonist, it also creates enigmas (mysteries) that must be solved in order to resolve the problem set by the antagonist.
• A resolution occurs when the protagonist finally resolves the problem, overcomes the villain and solves the enigmas initially presented.
• A new equilibrium is made at end of the media text, the protagonist tries to get their life back to normal, having learned from the experiences they have put through.

Roland Barthes, a French semiologist, described all texts as complex 'bundles' of meaning of which can be unraveled to create a whole range of different meanings. Media texts can be read from different perspectives, with different people getting different ideas and meanings from consuming the same text.

According to Barthes,  text can either be: 

• Open - This type of media text has no definite conclusion, allowing those who have consumed it to think and draw their own conclusions from what they have seen. There are numerous 'threads' for the audience to pull on throughout the text.
• Closed - This type of media text only has one obvious conclusion, with there being only one 'thread to pull' when trying to figure out what happened at the end of the media text. Most Hollywood are closed texts.
• Polysemic - This type of media text can give different meanings and ideas to different people. The meanings and ideas they form really depend on how they personally have consumed the text.

Barthes often spoke about these 'threads' as being narrative codes, the most important code being the enigma code, a narrative device that teases the audience by presenting a puzzle or riddle to be solved. This is where most of the different meanings can occur from, and different audiences can interpret text in different ways.

Syd Field, an American screenwriting guru, believed that all films followed a three act structure. 

The three acts being: 

1. Setup - In this structure, the film must be set-up within the first twenty to thirty minutes before the main character or protagonist experiences a 'plot point' that gives him or here that must be achieved.
2. Approximately half the movie's running time must be taken up with the character's struggle to achieve his or her goal: known as the 'Confrontation' period. He refers, sometimes, to the Midpoint, a more subtle turning point in Act 2. 
3. The Climax - The final quarter of the film, depicts a climactic struggle by the protagonist to finally achieve (or not achieve) his or her goal and the aftermath of this struggle.

Claude Levi-Strauss, a French anthropologist and ethnologist, argued that a structure of narratives was a dependence on binary oppositions - a conflict between two qualities or terms which in this case the dominant and subordinate, for example that constructions of gender roles in narrative lead to a series of binary oppositions.

Dominant Groups

• Male
• White
• Middle Class
• Middle Aged
• Heterosexual
• Able-bodied 

Subordinate Groups

• Female
• Other ethnic groups
• Working Class
• The Young and Old
• Homosexual, Bisexual
• Disabled 

Case Study - Alex Southam

Described by Agile Films in 2012 as "an exciting new talent… entirely self-taught… working in a dizzying variety of styles across live action and animation". He has made a diverse portfolio for himself, working with the likes of companies such as Walkman, and artists like Alt+J and Lianne La Havas.

Southam operates with a "one man band" mentality, performing the tasks needed to make a music video by himself. That means he would setup and film, organize lighting and edit the footage all by himself. Making sure he could take full credit for all his work but now as he has become more popular, he has a director of photography in order to help him with his camera and lighting work.

He prefers to make music videos than to make commercials as there is more artistic freedom in making them and commercials are often restrictive in what directors can and cannot do. Vimeo is his more preferable website to share his videos as he feels it has higher status than YouTube and is becomingly in the music industry.

His Works

His breakthrough came with the music video for “Tessellate” by Alt-J, he had a budget of £10,000, use of a very large cast and was able to add special effects through the use of AfterEffects. In regards to a storyline, there isn’t much to go on as it consists mainly of people standing around doing nothing and doesn’t really relate to the actual song, suggesting a disjuncturing relation between the two.

Another music video he is known for is the one for Chase and Status' "Lost and Not Found",working with a budget of £50,000, filming in Los Angeles and inspired by Massive Attack's "Unfinshed Sympathy". Alex wanted to get an early 1990's video look and film the entire music video in one take with a Steadicam. He intially filmed the entire video at 36 frames per second instead of the normal 24, slowing it down during editing. There are only three shots in this whole vido, which really emphasisie the lack of editing put into this video. In regards to Goodwin's theory, you could argue the music video is an illustrative one as it relates to the lyrics of the song, a fugitive on the loose.

Star Theory

Richard Dyer, an English academic, proposed Star Theory, the idea that artists are manufactured by institutions for financial purposes. He believes that artists are artificially constructed though images such as films, magazines, advertising and music in order to attract a specific target audience, with there being a ‘niche’ and ‘mainstream’ market for audiences, record labels therefore have to market their artists differently to cater for their target audiences.  Dyer claims that artists who seem ‘real’ and are not prepared by record labels who create fake/artificial images for them are preferred by consumers.

Consumers love artists who convey their true emotions in their songs and image as they themselves can easily identify with them. For the artist, they can use this ‘realness’ as unique selling point.

Culture 

He beleived artists create trends, which their fans could follow while they listened and consumed their music. Fans would often copy their clothing and hair styles that their favourite artists would have. This was especially evident during the rise of The Beatles in to mainstream society, fans of the groups would often copy their favourite member's haistyle. With the advent of new technology such as the internet and social media, audiences can now have even more access into their favourite artists life.

Representation
The music indusrty is able to create and promote artists who specialise in different genrse as they are able to appeal to different target audiences. For example, if an artist specialised in rap music, the music industry would help the artist develop him/her to have the image of a rap artist and help the person appeal to the audience thats interested in that kind of music.
 

Deconstructing Britney Spears

When Britney Spears was introduced to the mainstream audience, she began to raise issues regarding the imagary of females within the music industry. Then, the music industry was dominated by males so it was initially thought for it to be very hard for her to break out and become a star. Her initial image was seen to be a role model for the average teenage girl.

Her early videos were able to appeal to the young female groups through really 'girlie' imagary e.g. bedroom culture, dolls, signature pigtails look with choreographed dance routines which girls could copy them and feel like they are part of her 'gang'. In regards to Laura Mulvey's theory, she could also be seen as exploiting  male audiences by being the object of erotic desire through her clothing, wearing a crop top and some kind of sports bra showing off her body to the audience.


She was able to connect with most teenage girls by raising up some the problems they go through with her songs e.g the music video for 'From the Bottom of my Broken Heart'  addresses relationships with boys.

What was quite unique about some of her music videos was the ability to empower and exploit at the same time. For example, in the music video for 'I'm Not a Girl, Not Yet A Woman', she empowers by showing she's mature and moved on from her childish gimmicks but also exploits through revealing clothing attracting voyeuristic views from male audiences.

Recieving constant backlash over the choice of clothing in her videos, she used the music video for 'Overprotected' as a way of responding to the comments being made against her saying that she is a grown woman and doesn't to be need told what to wear. She believed showing off your body was a form of empowerment for women  and being able to do that was a good thing.

More recently, Britney released a music video for 'Hold It Against Me', she used this a way of rejecting all the previous images she had formed and try to start afresh, she wears a white wedding dress to empasize this message like she was pure and innoncent but was forced into marrying this industry. She shoots paint at TV screens showing footage of her previous music video and shows a scene of her fighting herself  which I infered to be this constant internal conflict she has between her personal and professional life.



 

Promotional: Creating a Band

Adele vs Lady Gaga

Adele market's her image in quite a unique way in contrast to other artists in today's industry. She wants to be known for the true talent of her singing, the depth of her songs and not for the controversy that comes with being a celebrity today. In the music video for 'Someone Like You' is set in a real setting, there are no gimmicks, just her walking around and singing the song. She isn't wearing any fancy clothes and presents herself as a very ordinary person, the same as everyone else. By doing this, she able to connect to women who are similar in looks and age to her. 

Lady Gaga markets her image very differently to Adele.  She doesn't have a voice as powerful as Adele's so uses other tools of marketing to promote herself. Her one of a kind music videos could be seen as works of art, often causing controversy. The persona she has and the costumes she wears are often regarded as unconventional and strange, appealing to niche groups such as the LBGT community.

Model of The Media

Media texts such as film, TV and games are consumed by audiences who experience these texts in a number of ways. The nature of the media markets are rapidly changing, this is due to the dramatic rise of piracy within the markets causing a massive decline in the financial transaction that audiences undergo when consuming texts, particularly music.

As a result of this behaviour, music videos are now primarily as a promotional tool. Institutions such as Amazon, Sony and Universal exhibit, market and produce these media texts for audiences to consume.

A Visual Model of the Media