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..

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.

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.

Magazine advert research

Digipak Track List

ALBUM - Broken Clock

• Down with the Trumpets
• Cigarette Man
• Rewind
• Socks Down
• On a Roll
• Kicking in Doors
• Backhand
• Crazy Little Thing Called Love (remix)

Digipak Ideas

During today's lesson a few ideas have sprung to mind in regard to the future Digipak being created for 'Bacci & Filter' - the following bullet points entail some of my thoughts on what I could simply but effectively produce:

• The front of the pack including a photograph edited onto a billboard
• The back of the pack including a photograph on a billboard having graffiti across it
• The billboard showing 'Bacci & Filter' strolling past it.

Inspiration

Here is a video I love at the moment; I love the choppy editing, the black and white contrast, the simplicity against the complexity and the positioning of each piece of footage. The video also includes an astounding, record breaking number of frames per second!