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Audience Feedback

Archiving

This is a little recap of the year of filming me and Mollie have had together! I'd have to excuse the ugly faces, bad dancing and certain accident swearing..

Digipak Analysis

Colouring

I  used quite a darkened, de-saturated colour scheme across each side of my digipak, I did this as I found the effect to be an edgy, creative colour selection for the photos included in the digipak - whilst also being linked to some of the main colour schemes within our main product that are also quite de-saturated. I also found that this sort of creative editing reflected the many british youths in society today and therefore helped target our desired audience.

Text

I used the 'fixedsys' font type as I found it to be a very quirky and different style for the text to go on our digipak; the font type also reminded me of old video games, which then inspired me to use it throughout the cover of both my digipak and my magazine cover as it links in with the vintage style of colouring and theme within our main product. As the font reminded me of video-gaming it seemed to fit perfectly with the rest of our anciliary tasks and music video as it represented youth culture.

Signs and signifiers/symbols

The images used in our digipak were chosen - partly because a few of the stills were taken from our main product - as they represent individuality and british youth culture. The cigarette shot wasn't chosen to promote smoking or any other uses of narcotics but to plainly portray parts of average life for young people today.

Digipak

Evaluation - Question 4

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

Evaluation Q4 on Prezi

Evaluation - Question 3

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Research and Planning

Throughout the research and planning stages of making our main product, Mollie and myself continued to scan through all different types of music videos and ideas on YouTube, Vevo and music channels. We also looked at other artists digipaks, websites and magazine adverts to get a sense of how we felt our main product and anciliary tasks should be.





Myself and Mollie were constantly in contact using all different types of communication to discuss what our plans for filming
and editing would be and what ideas we could
develop for our music video. Through the technoglogy of texting, BlackBerry messenger and Twitter, we were continuously aware of filming days and eachother's opinions and ideas.

Construction

In the beginning stages of our video construction, natural lighting and basic filming techniques were used as we wanted to focus most of our talent with technology in the editing stages of our video. We didn't want to include any performance elements within our video as we felt the genre and concept of our video should contain more quirky and alternative clips, we used Final Cut Pro and iMovie to transform our basic shots into works of art using all kinds of tutorials and techniques within the effects and colouring sections in our two main editing programs.

A particular shot type myself and Mollie liked was the Snorricam idea, we developed this idea in different ways throughout our filming days, as we used it for a split screen POV shot to make the concept of the technique even more effective.

Another way in which we had the ability to encorporate the Snorricam style within our music video was by creating our very own Spinning-Snorri, whereby we used spinning desk chairs to attatch the tripod on and spin whilst recording to create our desired effect.

Throughout our editing stages we consistently used the same vintage effect techniques on Final Cut with a range of footage taken for our video - by doing this we we able to ensure continuity was large part of our product and the video was able to look as professional as possible.

As we felt as though our skills with technology and editing could be further developed from AS to A2, we spent a lot of time on perfecting and creating brilliant, advanced shots in Final Cut. As we had only briefly used this program in our AS production, we felt that as a smaller group we could work simultaneously to produce professional effects for our music video in order to fit our genre and aspirations. We particularly liked an opening shot in Jay-z & Kanye's latest video:

Evaluation - Question 2

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

As a joint decision, myself and Mollie decided to incorporate the lyrics of our main product into our band name; our genre and style is quite quirky and alternative so the name "Bacci and Filter" seemed to fit perfectly along with showing a link to the main product in mind. Furthermore, our use of 'bacci' and 'filter' in the form of a cigarette was placed directly within certain shots in our music video - we filmed footage of a burning down cigarette and a sparking lighter whilst also using it within the digipak created in our ancillary tasks to make a more effective link and stamp on our branding and main product.

Whilst also wanting our main product and anciliary tasks to promote individuality and to steer away from male dominance or female sexualisation, we encorporated elements of youth culture into our video, digipak and magazine advert; many other female artists have themselves in the central focus of their digipak and magazine advert - such as Beyonce - however we decided to highlight the youthfullness and alternative genre of our main product and branding by using a cigarette and lighter on the front of our two anciliary tasks. The editing and objects used within the photos on both the digipak and magazine advert represent the british youth culture of today, whereby fun and individuality is a big part of a young person's life - in correlation with our main product, this attracts a certain target audience and makes our branding stand out from other real media products that focus on the sexuality of their artists.

Evaluation - Question 1

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real Media products?

Voyeurism - use of conventions
 

Conistently within our main product, myself and Mollie decided to encorporate an old, vintage television with our footage placed inside, not only to add to the theme and style of our music video, but to also add to the sense of voyeurism found within most other real media products today. This was a type of convention that we found we could utilise in order to conform to our genre whilst also being able to use it to our editing advantage. Voyeurism has been a main tool used throughout our A2 music video to gain a sense of being watched, this aspect of our video conforms to conventions in other music videos over a long period of time; artists such as Bombay Bicycle Club use the same concept within their video for Always Like This, as the sense of being watched comes from the changing of the actual video, to the recording of it:

The Male Gaze - challenging conventions

One convention found within other real media products was portrayed in Laura Mulvey's theory (1975) of the sexualisation of women in the media, which depicts men to be the main dominators within the industry and women are only of use for performance value and to be looked at. This was the one convention that we mutually agreed we wanted to challenge within our music video. Many women in the media can be seen as in the spotlight purely for the male gaze; artists such as Rihanna dress, act and create lyrics provocatively for the reason of the visual satisfication her audience feels by watching her videos. As a way of rejecting this type of convention, we dressed ourselves in jeans, Vans and hoodies and acted - at times- foolishly within our video in order for our image to remain free of sexualisation and for our artists branding to be known for it's individuality and talent, whilst also fitting in with our chosen genre.

 

Linking lyrics to video - developing conventions

'Lights are blinding my eyes'

'When the sun comes up'

Andrew Goodwins theory of music videos suggests that there has always been a strong link between the lyrics within an artists song to their music video; this form of a convention found in most other real media products fit our genre well so we encorporated its use many times throughout our main product and anciliary taks. In the research and planning stages of our music video, we found that The Streets 'Blinded by the Lights' video was a perfect example of the convention, whilst also not be too obvious for the audience; within 'Blinded by the Lights' the powerful use of lighting to reflect the chorus and the title of the song was used throughout and was very effective. We used this idea at various different times in our music video, one example being the use of a rising sun shot in correlation to the lyrics 'When the sun comes up' - we liked this concept as it also allowed us to excel in our editing skills and create shots that weren't just of the two artists.

However, we also continued to develop the concept of the linking between lyrics and music video by creating a more complex and effective way of portraying this technique; most music videos just plainly show footage of the words they are trying to depict, whereas myself and Mollie used a mixture of a snorricam, a POV shot and a split screen moulded into one to create the desired effect we planned for the lyrics 'chase your boyfriend let's have him'. This use of editing and filming skills not only helped in portraying the lyrics in the song, but also showed our artists branding and individuality in our main product compared to other real media products.

Exam Prep

Laura Mulvey's Theory

In 1975, theorist Laura Mulvey created the theory of the 'Male Gaze' which suggests that females are continuously sexualised within the media and are used as a tool of performance or an object to look at. This theory can be referred to in many music videos of today, including Rihanna's 'S and M' video; within the video Rihanna wears scarcely any clothing, provocative make up and dancing, whilst also using printed 'censored' vests and PVA shoes to represent sexual habits. The video was also not allowed to be played on television during the day as its contents included many scenes that were too sexually explicit for younger audiences - therefore reaffirming the fact that the contents of her music videos are directly targetting a certain type of audience of whom focus with the suggested 'Male Gaze'. Artists with videos such as Rihanna's conform to this type of media representation in every way as the majority of their attraction from audiences are through the promiscuity promoted within their videos.

British Filmmaking Article

Does David Cameron want our films to “go mainstream” because he fears the British Film Industry?

It’s a disgrace that David Cameron can sit and speak with such pride about British films after slashing the budget of the BFI and removing UKFC. It’s even more of a disgrace for him to claim that British funding should “focus on the mainstream”, especially when filmmakers such as Lynne Ramsay, Mike Leigh and Shane Meadows are bringing such international acclaim. His attitude must therefore be considered as either ignorance, or as a politically motivated move. After all, how can you predict what will be successful or not? When he talks about “mainstream” is he talking in terms of economic impact, or is he talking about films that portray a Britain that doesn’t really exist. A Britain where Hugh Grant is constantly charming, the Royal Family are heroes with stutters and wizards attend boarding school. What about the Full Monty? Financially successful, Oscar nominated even, but featuring a plot revolving around the destruction of British industry. Would David Cameron approve of such an honest portrayal of problems (especially as they were introduced by his own party) just because it was financially successful?

The Full Monty - is this too anti-tory for Dave's mainstream agenda?

Take two more examples. Ratcatcher (by Lynne Ramsay) portrays the appalling conditions of a 1970s Glasgow and This Is England (by Shane Meadows) explores the rise of the far-right National Front movement during the 1980’s. Despite the fact these movies have reignited foreign recognition towards British artistry, they do not represent the picture-postcard view of our country David Cameron seeks to sell. Is this what he is really attacking? By “going mainstream” does he seek to rob certain Britishness from our art? This is an ironic move for a government that loves to scaremonger about British identity loss. With rising unemployment, social realism is likely to become a prime concern for British film makers once again. Maybe this is what Cameron really fears. That someone will come along, point a camera, and betray his lies about fairness and social commitment. Someone who shows the devastating impact his cuts have been having on this country and someone who immortalises him forever as an unjust and idiotic buffoon.

Shot for shot analysis

Use of real media texts

Bacci + Filter

Lana Del Rey

As a continuing theme throughout our music video we used the strobe/flicker effect - along with about 5 other effect types - to create a vintage effect on various different shots filmed for our main product; we found this theme to be particularly quirky and perfectly fitting for our genre. Another artist who encorporated this effect within their music video is Lana Del Rey, who used original vintage footage continuously throughout her 'Video Games' video - once again this specific theme created an endearing effect for her video and targeted a creative audience.

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Many times over the years a brick wall background has been used within music videos, we found that this type convention fit well for our video and its genre; the use of a brick wall represents youth culture and has done for a very long time featuring in other videos such as Jayz's '99 Problems' and Azelia Banks' '212'. Both of these examples portray the life of young people in the world - this sense of mutuality between Britain (in our video) and other countries around the earth like America (Jayz's video) helped in promoting the creative link between youths across other nationalities, therefore spreading our target audience further across the border.

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Contiuously over our period of filming time we focused our use on the HD camera provided and attatched the tripod ourselves or a spinning chair to create the snorricam effect we particularly wanted to be included in our main product; as the HD camera had a flexible screen it allowed us to see ourselves as we filmed on snorricam and to ensure the positioning of the shot was perfect. We also found that the HD camera had a brilliant natural sharpness which therefore meant certain close-up shots were astoundingly focused whilst the background was effectively blurry - this type of filming can be seen in many other independent and creative music videos which reflect the imaginative and quirky side of young people in society.

Final Video!

After hours spent within our frees and after school, we have finally finished our music video! We're proud of how the finished product looks, especially with how perfect the vintage and spinning snorri shots appear: