EVALUATION

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

The media products that we have created are the music video, All The Small Things by Tweeda, posters and a digipack including a front cover, spine, back cover and 10 digi pack pages which conforms – though individualizes – to the conventions of an alternative rock genre. We decided to focus on an alternative rock piece; over the summer we found Tweeda on Youtube and got permission to use his cover of All The Small Things by Blink 182. Whilst we aim to meet the conventions of an alternative rock music video (as well as products), there are also instances that we aim (though rarely) to subvert from the genre and challenge it. The music video typically follows the conventions by having a chronological narrative that feature ‘themes’ of the genre whilst splicing in live performance of the band; for the most part, we conform to the typical ideal of ‘iconography’ be having a constant shot or referral to the band or lead singer, who is also the protagonist in the narrative of the video. Through filming techniques and editing, we have aimed to maintain focus upon the ‘band as a brand’ and the link between the ‘themes’ and audience. The digi packs themselves follow this same ideal; whilst the sense of ‘iconography’ is not entirely focused on the lead singer as a whole, it rather reflects on the band as a ‘unique’ artist image – this is best expressed through the front cover of the digi pack. The ‘themes’ that we have depicted throughout the music video are typically shown in influence here with ‘tongue and cheek’ illustration images to keep the ideal of artistic integrity.

Music Video

The music video shares influences from such bands as Cake, Linkin Park, Oasis, Muse, The Damned Things, Jimmy Eat World, 30 Seconds to Mars, Sum 41, All Time Low, All American Rejects and Good Charlotte; these bands either conform or challenge the genre of alternative rock, though have indeed set the bar for audiences. Fans of the alternative rock genre will be well aware of these bands and will have good reception to them, their songs, albums and music videos. In there, there’s an essence of community or ‘in the know’; apart of the genre is being ‘’apart of the genre’’. Linkin Park and 30 Seconds to Mars are possibly the best examples of this; Linkin Park have an Underground community which follow the band and 30 Seconds to Mars have followers that use their symbolism to the extreme that followers will get tattoos to the point of ‘’cult following’’:

Their ideology is carried over into music videos; 30 Seconds to Mars for example, use a lot of their symbols in their music videos too, just as Linkin Park do.

(This example is taken from This Is War). The use of symbolism or otherwise artistic ideology is used by a lot of the bands that we looked to for influence within their own music video; however, when we came to make the decision of whether or not we wanted to do this, we decided that we wanted to challenge the ideal and instead present it in another form – this means that we instead placed it in the print products. Instead, for the music video we looked at all other conventional forms, such as the divide between live performance and narrative. Earlier this year, I conducted a test where I measured the percentage of how much of the music video is live performance and how much is narrative when watching these sorts of music videos. I found that nearly 75% to 80% were live performance with splicing narrative within to both break it up and illustrate the fantasies of the song; it was very rare that alternative rock music videos were 50% or less. From that research and after watching our influences, we decided as a group that we would focus on live performance more than narrative, though would still reflect the fantasies of the song. This is something that a music video – no matter the genre – will normally do: portray and/or illustrate a ‘’fantasy’’ of the song. Whilst some artists choose to portray this in visual illustration such as the Gorrillaz, our influences focus on alternative rock and the bands within our influence; particularly Blink 182 and Sum 41. Due to the actual nature of the song, being slightly more ‘’punky’’ than other examples that we have looked at, we decided that what we would do would be more ‘tongue and cheek’. Blink 182 do in fact have a music video for ‘’All The Small Things’’ and whilst we wanted to maintain conventions of the genre, we at the same time did not want to copy or fully replicate other pieces of work. In total, we made the stand alone decision to conform to the strongest instances of conventions with the audience will be able to relate to, whilst maintaining some form of artistic integrity.

When looking back at the music video and our influences, it seems almost ironic due to the coincidence in the composition of the shots. As I did most of the filming, I didn't purposely set out to copy frame from frame of shot types or parts of music videos, though a lot of our shots were portrayed in a similar if not strong way. The images above (the first being from Cake – Sick of You) look into the conventions of landscape and scenery that the narrative is set up within. Typically in an alternative rock music video, the landscape of choice will be rather urban; Cake uses shops, were other bands such as Lostprophets and 30 Seconds to Mars use cities and urban styled neighborhoods. Again, we didn't want to copy it frame for frame, but we decided consciously to make that visual, almost background, connection with our audience.

   

In terms of live performance, all of our influences contained a medley of how they represent iconography as all of them do it in different ways. Some bands like All Time Low and 30 Seconds to Mars maintain a high percentage of their iconography through the use of continuously or repeating shots back to the lead singer, to establish the band as the one that will be typically most well-known; this also allows the audience to make a better connection as they are more likely to musically appreciate the lyrics which are synced by the lead singer. At the same time, other bands such as Cake and Linkin Park will maintain this, but also make reference to the instruments in use (and the whole band as a unit) at the same time. When comparing the shot from Cake’s music video and comparing it to our synced drum shots, you can see that the positioning is rather conventional to focus on snare (and or high hat) as these are the most identifiable sounds from the rhythm part of a song.

  

On the note of iconography within music videos, this is something that we conformed to very highly. A lot of the live performance is of close up or mid shots of Reece (our lead singer) to create the ‘iconography’ of tweeda. Whilst our music video also reflects on the band as a whole, when looking at such influences as Oasis, it seemed to make sense to make that connection whereby we make a clear link between the band and the audience by the use of the lead singer as the main focus throughout a large percentage of the live performance.

  

Whilst establishing iconography, we also decided that we would focus on the band as a unit too – only just not as much. We noticed in most alternative rock music videos that the live performance may typically begin with a close up or mid shot of the lead singer to establish the iconogrophy, then gradually cut to wider shots. We also took inspiration from the composition and framing of the band too – every single band we looked at always had the lead singer / lead guitarist up front, bassist off side and the drummer at the back. We decided to replicate this as it is a way of communicating visually and musically with the audience of what they are more likely to recognize from the music and who they are more likely to be affiliated with; thus still having that essence of ‘iconography'.

  

Finally for live performance, we also followed the conventions of extreme close ups on instruments whilst they are being played; we do this for all the instruments in our music video due to its small size, though some bands will have shots of all or only a few. Typically however, we noticed that most music videos would commonly refer back to the guitar in order to affiliate with the iconography that is set up. As we had decided to follow conventions, we decided that we were going to do the same thing whilst keeping in mind that we weren't going to follow it shot for shot.

Apart from live performance, we also have a spliced narrative within the music video. This just about accounts for half or just slightly less of the entire music video; though we found this a challenge to work in on a degree such as other music videos due to the short size of the song. For the narrative we decided to look at these conventions:

-          Drugs

-          Sex

-          Isolation

-          Alcohol

All of these conventions are typically picked up in stages in the music video just as we identified in our influences. Ideally, it would have been better if we could have included more themes that alternative rock picks up on (such as revolution and angst) though to reflect the ‘fantasy’ of the song, we decided that these themes were more than enough. What was important to us to be identifying the difference between live performance and narrative to better deploy the subtle tone of the ‘themes’ so that the audience would have to reread it to pick up more significantly on these themes. For the difference in live performance and narrative, we decided that we would ‘wash tone’ the footage by putting a slight grey scale effect on it. By doing this, we were aiming to follow the conventions of creating a difference visually between the live performance and narrative.

Print Products

When creating the print products, we looked at very similar or the same influences of bands as we did for the music video, though we looked at a few extra like Pink Floyd and their ‘black album’.

We decided immediately that, after looking at our influences, that we would be both conventional and artist. We found that a lot of what we were studying and absorbing contained a majority of artistic integrity, just as Pink Floyd as another form of presenting iconography. Whilst developing the print products, we went through a range of development in order to get to the point where we could state ‘’we maintained artistic integrity – we are of the know’’. Ultimately, we decided that we were going to create an album consisting of cover, back cover, spine and then internal pages of the digi pack and whilst originally we did think and try to design a vynl cover too, we ultimately ended up creating two posters too. After looking at bands like Linkin Park and Good Charlotte, we decided that the internal pages to the digi pack would be ‘pieces of art to express the song’, this would be in order to maintain our artistic integrity.

The front cover and back cover Sean created a ‘swirl’ on Photoshop that we would all agree are quite artistic. After scrapping the ‘themes’ idea, we later decided that we would be colourful whilst maintaining a black background too as we found most digi packs contained a stark contrast of black and white to present titles, lyrics and of course art. We decided, due to the nature of the song and how we could represent the themes that we would then in cooperate through colour representation. As a result, we ended up with a nameless front cover that used its colour and design to advertise itself. We purposely decided to do this when looking at influences like Pink Floyd because it creates the sense that the audience are then an elite member of the ‘cult’ group, as if they are in the know. Whilst this gives it the ability to better connect with the audience through a strange device of iconography, at the same time we didn't want to cut ourselves dead. The spine and back cover have the band name ‘TWEEDA’ as well as a song listing whilst following the swirl theme. We also included scanner code so that our target audience (mostly built of teenagers) could use modern social media to scan the back of the cover and find out what it was about.

The actual pages of the digi pack we decided to make of works of art as it seemed most alternative rock bands did this. Sean wanted to maintain the swirl but change it to different colours to best represent the theme of ideal that the song was about and me and Reece agreed. We then decided to create images or illustrations (reusing some that were originally the designs for the digi pack) and altering the colour of the swirl via Photoshop. Whilst some themes were represented in the music video, we hardly wanted to make links between the products because it seemed more effective to have it as a piece of art that is separate to the music video.

(correct digi pack order)

We decided that for the posters that we would continue the swirl theme from the front cover and not alter it. There are of course two different posters, one with ‘tweeda.net’ and the other with social media networks and ratings. We decided to do both as it kept that status of ‘being in the know’ whilst at the same time also trying to branch out onto the social networks to get ourselves better known. The blank poster works effectively as it is more plain and effective; the ‘tweeda.net’ alone is a good marketing technique because it’s all that the audience has to use to find out about the band. The other poster on the other hand works very well but for very different reasons. It works because it uses social media such as Facebook and Twitter to market itself and also connect with the teenage target audience. For this poster, we also decided to include some ratings to make the album more credible too.

  

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

For our project, we decided to create a music video, a digi pack and two print posters. Our only link between the products is the four themes that we depict in the music video and have chosen to represent in the fantasy element of the narrative – sex, drugs, alcohol and isolation. Other than that, we have purposely made no other links apart from the deliberate use to use colour or not. The front cover of the digi pack when compared to the music video has very, if not at all, in common. What some viewers may pick up on is the deliberate choice of colour and the representation of colour within the front cover; the juxtaposition in colours could represent the themes as a whole that are picked up in the music video, or the protagonists transition from isolation to ‘sex’ or some possible indication of ‘love’; ultimately however this is the audiences choice to pick up on the stubble contexts for themselves and come to their own assumption.  The only links that have been made between the print products and the music video is the four themes that are later displayed as illustrations and represented in colour though this convention follows throughout the entire digi pack. The posters of course link to the front cover and the code scanner on the back of the digi pack for the use of social media; other than that we have deliberately decided to not make any exact links between the products. We decided this because a lot of our influences often have completely different products from their music video and their work often stands on their own two feet well enough through the conception of idealogy, artistic integrity and the idea of cult following. Therefor we decided that all of our products would be ‘standalone’ so that they could behold and treasured as pieces of art on their own. However, this was more of a purposeful decision to acknowledge that our print products in particular are ‘of the know’ and should be represented as such to better connect with our audiences.

3. What have you learned from your audience feedback?

For audience feedback, we interviewed several individuals all of different interests, personalities and gender; that said, they are all a part of our target audience. For the interviews, me, Reece and Sean split into groups and interviewed them as a whole; I asked questions about the music video, Sean about print products and Reece about conventions. The interviews were filmed and edited.

1. Vision - How do you feel about the music video, is it visually pleasing?
   2. Style - Did you feel that the music video had a specific style, if so what was it and do you feel it fits with the music and genre?
   3. Story - Did you feel the narrative in this music video was easy to follow, if not why?
   4. Editing - How did you feel about the editing (change in shots, transitions), did it flow?
   6. Live Performance - Did you think the live performance was effective, was it believable?
2. 1. Do these conventions match typical conventions in a Music video?
   2.Do these Conventions match typical conventions in a Album Cover?
3. 1.Do you feel that the print products captured the vision of creating an Alternative Rock Album/poster?
   2. Do you feel the style of the album cover is effective? (with the variations of the swirls)
   3.How much do you think they relate to the genre?
   4.Do you like the icons? Do you feel they are effective?
   5.Do you feel like it's professional and like a realistic album/poster?
   6. For the whole thing, out of 10?

As a whole, what I got from my audience feedback was that most of the viewers who watched the music video and looked at the print products found it to be an effective piece of work that they enjoyed, found effective and fit very well to the convention of alternative rock. A lot of the individuals that were interviewed stated that they felt that the music video linked to a lot of similar bands that we had addressed, such as Linkin Park, All Time Low and 30 Seconds to Mars; the audience even made references to the type of shots used and the pace of the music too and how effective this goes together. Two people (Danielle and James) stated that the ‘spinning shot’ was effective to show the effect of drugs whilst also remaining low in terms of exposing that they are on drugs. Whilst we had a lot of audience feedback though, there were a few that felt they didn’t enjoy particular parts of the music video. The live performance in particular was drawn up as they felt that it didn’t look realistic all of the time; one of the same individuals also noted that he didn’t like the ‘drinking scene’ as it seemed out of place too. Additionally, our implied ‘sex scene’ was only picked up once by the five people we interviewed, reflecting how our themes are a strict undertone to the narrative.

We also received positive feedback for the digi packs too and the posters. Once Sean had quizzed them a lot felt that the digi packs were very creative and artistic as well as colourful, though a few comments were also made about ‘trying to look too 3D’ and some of the imagery inside of the swirls, such as the pug. Whilst some of the illustrations also try to reflect pop culture, there are of course the few that will not please all of the audiences. Overall, the response for the print products were very positive.

In general, we received very positive feedback which led us to believe that we have created a very strong project for an alternative rock piece with our three products. What I have learnt purposely is that there may be things that I would do again if I could, such as changing the live performance so that there were more movement in the shots (as is conventional in music videos to keep the flow and pace of the song) and make sure that the instruments look like they’re actually being played as this is a key feature that came up in the interviews. However I think the print products are strong enough on their own and stand as a piece of art by themselves, which is why I wouldn’t want to change them.

Interviews:

part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UiCBAX3XDzY
wouldn't allow me to embed or link due to copyright reasons - please follow link

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

During this project, I felt I used a wide range of media technologies in order to produce what I have created in terms of research, production and evaluation. Since finishing Northern Stars in the summer of 2012 until late December, I have learnt new skills which I have applied and adapted to my filming techniques as well as understanding of the media.

During my research I used Youtube and Facebook to research information about a lot of bands I was interested in, as I’m a fan of the alternative rock genre, to collect resources for my research and/or information about what is currently happening with bands such as Linkin Park (this is how I found out that they released a vynle of their latest album Living Things). Using social media websites allowed me to get videos for my research so that I could learn the conventions of a music video and watch a wide range of ideas and ‘fantasy’ elements that people have come up; even the ‘idea’ of a music video.

During production (and slightly because of the influence at training in Northern Stars) this year, I had a new camera. I had recently bought the Canon 600D which is capable of HD 1080p filming that could be used manually. Considering I had just learnt about white balance, exposure and manually focusing, this allowed me to play a lot more in the terms of shots that were using; ultimately, it allowed my shots to look far much cleaner and artistic than the previous year. The manual exposure (making the shot lighter or darker) and manual focus were used the most. When looking at the audience feedback a few mentioned the ‘spinning shot’ where the camera is focused on the two characters in the narrative and the background is spinning. Due to manual focus on my camera, the depth of field was focused onto the individual before they would begin to spin, and once doing so the background was not in focus due to were the depth of field sat in the shot, giving it that ‘spinning’ effect. This also meant that I was able to play a lot more with the shots I got, such as transcending the depth of field from foreground to background (which is seen in a few instances during the music video) – the background of the live performance was also mentioned as the lights were out of focus giving it a little bit more of an artist edge (this was created by zooming onto Reece’s face whilst he was singing and then focusing to increase the depth of field as close to the foreground as possible to completely distort the background). Overall for the music video, we were able to use a lot more of new media technologies and I think this is really relevant in the music video. Additionally, the music video was edited using Adobe Premier Elements 10, one of the most recent in the elements software package. We decided to do this as I updated this onto my laptop and it seemed easier (especially when considering the file size of the footage) so that it could be done at home too. I think using Adobe Premier Elements 10 is easier than say Adobe Premier Pro CS3 because it has a more basic layout and if you’re are doing basic editing, is very simplistic for that purpose. It’s a type of software that did everything I needed it to do, it rendered quickly, it allowed me to cut and extend footage, it allowed me to timeline and mark in as well as add effects such as the tint grey scale on the narrative. Whilst the editing was simplistic, it was more of an issue of synching the singing/playing to the music and in most cases creating an order that seemed timed to the rhythm of the song too. Unlike last year, this was all that was required for editing. Some examples of colouring:

The print products are a completely different story; this required a lot of Adobe Photoshop CS3 in order to create our posters and digi pack. A lot of this was done in Sean’s behalf as he’s extremely Photoshop savvy, yet me and Reece had an artistic input too. Sean used a range of contrast tools as well as drawing and colouration tools to create the swirls and illustrations required; he often used his table too (a USB device which allows you to draw) to get the ‘crude’ images such as the alcohol bottles and sex symbols. The same was applied for the posters, were text was also required as well as masked images (such as iTunes) so that they could be input. Additionally, in the posters we contained ‘new media’ by adding iTunes, Facebook and Twitter icons to better connect with the audience through digital downloads and social media.

As for the evaluation, we used my Canon 600D to film and record individuals whilst were interviewing them so that we could edit in Adobe Premier Elements 10 to aid our evaluation process and give us a better understanding of what we have created.