Main Product: 'Lost' Music Video

Here is my finished music video to the song 'Lost' written by me that I have made for my A2 Media Studies coursework this year.

Enjoy!

The Ancillary Texts: DVD Cover and Website

These are the ancillary text that support my main product, the music video to 'Lost' written and recorded by me. One is a DVD cover for the release of the music video, and the other is a website for the musical artist. Here they are:

Website: http://benpilston.wix.com/benpilstonmusic

DVD Cover:

Evaluation Question 1: Commentary

This is my answer to question 1 of the evaluation questions: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions for real media products?

Evaluation Question 2: Podcast

This is my answer to question 2 of the evaluation questions: How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

Evaluation Question 3: Interview

This is my answer to question 3 of the evaluation questions: What have you learned from your audience feedback?

                                     

Evaluation Question 4: PowerPoint Presentation

This is my answer to the question 4 of the evaluation questions: How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

Here is the audio to go with the powerpoint:

Evaluation Question 4 Powerpoint

Evaluation Questions: Ways of Answering Question 2 and a Draft Answer

In aswer to the second evaluation question - 2. How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?  - I will use a podcast.


Here are some examples of podcasts: 

For my ancillary text I chose to do a website for the band and a DVD cover for the music video. To connect my website for the band and the music video together I placed the music video on the homepage of the website in the center of the screen so that people would see it straight away when they go on the website. The video also begins to play as soon as someone has gotten on to the homepage or any of the pages on the website, with the music video being fixed in place on the page as well as the band logo...


I will again carry this on further, talking about the combination of both ancillary texts with the main product.

Evaluation Questions: Ways of Answering Question 4 and a Draft Answer

For the 4th evaluation at A2 I will answer in the form of a power point presentation.

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

I will deal with this question by splitting it up into three parts; the research and planning, production and post production.
In the research and planning parts of my production I used many media technologies that were accessible to me at home and at school, such as:

• Computers with the internet for Youtube and Blogger
• DVDs 
• Music channels on TV showing music videos    

I will then carry on the presentation as I have with this example for production and post production, including a voice over of me to further explain my points.

Evaluation Questions: Ways of Answering Question 3 and a Draft Answer (DVD Extra)

Question 3: What have you learnt from your audience feedback?

For question 3 of my A2 evaluation questions, I will answer in the style of a DVD extra, answering as if I am being interviewed having just watched reactions from people who have just watched my music video.

Here is a couple of examples of interviews with crews:

Pan's Labyrinth:



Frozen:

The Grand Budapest Hotel:



                                        

Here is a draft to the kind of of answer I will use:



To answer question 1, I needed to look at the research that I had made and from it I decided that the most obvious forms and conventions that music videos have is that different types of bands have different types of forms and conventions that their music videos have. This being the case I have looked at music videos by bands that are similar to the band the band I am doing a music video for and have noticed that many of them include the band within the music video. I have complied to this and have included quick shots of the musicians within the music video, but quick enough not to take the attention away from whats actually happening in the video.

I will carry on this answer in the real thing, including lots of detail.

                                             

Evaluation Questions: Ways Of Answering Question 1 and a Draft Answer

Having previously talked about the A2 evaluation questions that I will need to answer, I have been looking at different ways I could answer them to keep them interesting.

For question 1, I will answer in the style of a voice over commentry over my video. Here are a few examples:

American Psycho:

Here is a draft answer:

To answer question 1, I needed to look at the research that I had made and from it I decided that the most obvious forms and conventions that music videos have is that different types of bands have different types of forms and conventions that their music videos have. This being the case I have looked at music videos by bands that are similar to the band I am doing a music video for and have noticed that many of them include the band within the music video. I have complied to this and have included quick shots of the musicians within the music video, but quick enough not to take the attention away from whats actually happening in the video.

Potential Target Audience Research: BBFC and IFCO

To know what certificate to rate my music video for the DVD, I have been looking on the BBFC (the British Board of Film Classification) and the IFCO (Irish Film Classification Office).

From looking at the BBFC and the , I have decided that from their guidliness I think that my music video should be rate my music video a PG because it contains some distressing scenes that could cause distress to some children, but as drugs are never actually seen in the video it doesn't need to be any higher.


Here is the website for the BBFC: http://www.bbfc.co.uk/

Here is the website for the IFCO: http://www.ifco.ie/website/ifco/ifcoweb.nsf/web/home?OpenDocument

                                       


                                  

Evaluation Questions

As my the production and post production stages of my music video is coming to an end, I have been look at the evaluation questions that I need to answer for my A2 media studies. Here are the questions:

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

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

• What have you learned from your audience feedback?

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

In answering these questions I will need to choose different types of media, such as a podcast or dvd extras to explain my detailed answers.

Here are my examples from last year for my AS where again I used different medias to anwer the questions.

 

 

 

 

Ancillary Texts

For my media studies A2, as well as my main task, I have to create two ancillary texts to go with our main product, having the choice of three given in the brief:

1) A promotion package for the release of an album, to include a music promo video, together with two of the following three options:- a website homepage for the band;- a cover for its release on DVD;- a magazine advertisement for the DVD.

I have chosen to do the website and the DVD cover for my A2 media studies. Below are a few examples of each:

SKATERS website:

http://www.skatersnyc.com/

Music video:

Ancillary Text Research: Band Websites

Recently I have been focusing on band websites for artist similar to myself to know what kinds of things are expected to be included on an artist's website. Here are a few examples with links to their websites:

 Jake Bugg: http://jakebugg.com/

Damon Albarn: http://www.damonalbarnmusic.com/

What I have noticed about both of these websites is that they have their latest single's music video as the main feature of the home page, taking up the majority of the page. This is something that I will do for my website, placing the music video in the center of the web page so that it is the most important feature and catches the eye immediately.
Unlike the Jake Bugg website, I will have the music video begin to play the moment that someone visits the website and then repeat when it finishes so that it is constantly playing and is constantly seen and heard.

Doing this will really help make it obvious that this ancillary text and my main product are connected and will also promote my main product through the use of the ancillary text.

Ancillary Texts: DVD Cover

I have been looking at DVD covers for music videos that musical artists have released. Have a look at the examples that I have looked at then bellow see what I have written about them.



                                     

              

                                                 




                                      





                                          


There are a few things that I have noticed that they all of these DVDs have:

• A pictures of the artist on the front that is like a still from the music video and the artist's name.
• The name of the song that the music video is for.
• They all have the DVD logo on them.
• Some of them have a recommendation for the viewing age from the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC).
• They also contain additional information about the music video on the back, such as the director and other people that were involved with the making. Including the logos of the companies involved with the making of the video.

These are something that I will need to include on my own DVD cover. I will make sure that all the things that are expected to be included are included and possibly add some other information or additional things that aren't usually expected, things that will be obvious to do with the band, Monday Coma, making it obvious it is theirs.



Main Product: 'Lost' Music Video

Below is my music video so far for the song 'Lost' (all rights reserved and copyright to Monday Coma), it will be further developed and soon finished. Have a watch then comment on what you think.  

Potential Target Audience

To research into the audience that my music video is for, I have taken a look at musical artists that are similar to me and seeing what types of music videos they have done.

I looked at Damon Albarn's music video for 'Heavy Seas of Love' of his soon to be released album 'Everyday Robots', once you've watched see what else I have said about the video bellow, here is the video:

This music video has taken everyday life things, such as driving along in a car, and added surreal elements to it, such as the sea in the sky and the fishes swimming along the walls.
This type of surreal music video works very well with songs that have quite poetic lyrics that subtly hint at what they are singing about, and so translates these subjects and words into surreal imagery.

This being the case I have chosen to do quite a surreal music video for my song 'Lost' as I feel it is similar in terms of the lyrics and so feel I should have the imagery reflect them in a surreal way.


Another music video that is done similarly to that of the one for 'Heavy Seas of Love' is the music video to 'Once In A Life Time' by Talking Heads. It has a much more humourous take on this surreal idea, having odd back drops behind the singer doing wierd dancing. However, it to has the effect of throwing the viewer of a little by distorting real life. Here is the video:

Trip To The BFI

On the 5th of February we went down to London to the BFI (British Film Institution) and attended a lecture by Mathew Hall on collective identity.

The first half of the lecture involved a discussion where we viewed six clips from the films The Wild One, Rebel Without A Cause, Quadraphinia, Easy Rider, Human Traffic, and Kidulthood. We were asked to analys how we viewed the representation of the youth in the clips and how adults may view the representations of youth, and how they compared.

                                               


                                              

The second half consisted of the viewing of 'My Brother, The Devil' (a british film written and directed by Sally El Hosaini, released in 2012). It has a number of awards including the 2012 Sundance Film Festival and the 1012 Berlin International Film Festival.
The film is about two young Arabic brothers coming of age in East London, exploring issues relating to their identity, religion and sexuality. Here is the trailer for 'My Brother, The Devil':

We then, having watched the film, took part in a Q&A with Julia Godsinskaya, the producer of 'My Brother, The Devil'. The main things that were disgused in this session were the making of the film - what problems they had and how they went about actually filming it - and the responces that the film had received. I received an insight into how the film crew got around problems such as the London riots that were occuring and how they were not allowed to film in the streets of Hackney using knives for a particular fight scene that unfoldes within the streets. Godsinskaya also talked quite indepth about how many audiences interpreted 'My Brother, The Devil' differently, responding in a positive or negative way to how youth culure, religion and, inparticular, the sexuality of one of the main characters.

Costumes

For my main product, I have been researching what kinds of costumes are used in similar products to mine. As there will be only one character in my music video who will be the main focus, I only need to research similar characters to his. As the song is about drugs, this character is going to need to look like his is in that world and is heavily effected by drugs, most likely taking them, and so I looked at characters that are like this from similar products and what their costume is like.


The character Frank from Shameless is a heavy alcoholic. He wears clothes that are very dull, plain and old/worn out.

                                        

The character Mark Renton is a heroin addict. He wears clothes that are slightly to small for him, having very tight tops and jeans. His clothes also look very old and worn out.

                                           



The character Jeffrey "The Dude" Lebowski is also what seems to be a heavy drinker. He wears scruffy, old worn out clothes that look like they are only worn for comfort. They are very dull, colourless clothes that look like they're only worn for comfort.


                                 


From looking at these characters and their costumes, I have decided that my character's costume will be plain, dull coloured clothes that look like they are old and are worn out.



These are the type of clothes I am thinking of using:

                                                     
Plain grey long sleeve top:

                                                 



Plain blue jeans:

                                                  


Plain Shoes:



                                               




These examples are all very plain and brandless which is the type of clothes I will use.

Research Into Similar Products: Howler - Don't wanna

Here is the video to 'Don't Wanna' by Howler. Watch the video then have a read of what I think:



In this music video they use layering of the shots effectively. They layer a shot with the same shot but not quite in line over the or turn the overlay on its head over the original. This gives the feel of some thing not being quite right and slightly uncomfortable.
This is something I will use in my music video to cause the feel of uncomfort and distress, something that the character in the video will be feeling, trapped in the box. I will use this at points through out my music video to stimulate feelings felt by the character in the audience watching the video.


Another music video that uses this effect in the post production is 'Live Forever' by Oasis towards the end of the video, here is the music video:

Main Product Filming: Middle 8 - Fire Scenes

Yesterday I began filming for the middle 8 of the song that I am creating a music video for.

Here are a couple of the clips filmed put together as an example of the what I am planning to do for the real music video:

 

 

Again, this is not the finished product and so will be developed further with other shots included into it. I will soon be filming someother shots of fire burning across paper, then overlay it with a shot of the character so it looks like he is burning.

Main Product Filming: Opening Box Scene

Yesterday I filmed the opening scene for my music video to 'Lost'. Here is a 'behind the scenes' picture:


I have put together a couple of clips from yesterday's filming together as an example of what I am planing to finally do for my final music video. Here it is:

This will be developed further, integrating with the song and will have more done to the colour, as well as being extended further.

Storyboarding

Here are my storyboards for the 2nd verse, choruses, middle 8 and outro.


2nd Verse:

Choruses:

Middle 8:

Outro:

Main Product Filming: Developments

I have developed my ideas on the water scene of my music video (2nd verse) by adding a small amount of content in to flash up in sharp, flashy jumps. Below is an example of what I mean:

 

 

Have a look at my previous post and leave a comment on what you think! 

 

Creating the Props

I have recently created the prop that is the box that will be used in my music video.

 

This will be used in the opening of the song all the way through to the second verse. It will be used as the box that the character will be trapped in and is trying to get out off.I have made it bigger than it should be so that there will be not limitations to work with.

Main Product Filming

 Yesterday, 15th of January, I filmed the under water eye parts that will be integrated into the second verse inbetween shots of the sea. Here is a picture from 'behind the scenes':

 

 

Here are a few clips of the shots I have taken, roughly edited, that I will us in my music video:

 



 

 

I will possibly try to use the first clip to end the verse scene (water) by reversing the clip so that the water runs of the characters face, as if becoming dry.

 

Id be very interested what people think of what I have done so please comment an express your opinions!

Productiom Planning

Bellow is a production plan for the 15th of January (this wednesday). It includes a list of what will be needed on the day:

Production Planning

Product Research: Shine



                                                  

In thinking about how I will film to create a feeling of being free I came across a film called 'Shine' (a 1996 film about a pianist, David Helfgott, who has a mental breakdown and spends years in institutions) that has a scene where the main character is bouncing on a trapoline. This is filmed so that he jumps up and down into shot but it is slowed down. This gives it a sense of freedom (the character is is finally enjoying himself, feeling free) and openess that I am looking for. Watch the clip bellow then read what I am thinking of doing for my music video.

In my music video I will use the same technique that they have used in 'Shine'. I will film the character in the song rising into shot in slow motion by having them jumping on a trampoline and filming with a low angle shot. This will give the sense of feedom that the drugs give the character in the song, showing his release.

Main Product Filming

Today I was at Bournemouth filming for my music video to 'Lost'.

I got clips of the sea to use I between shots of the character's eye under water to give the sense of him being under the waves.

Here are a few of the clips that I took that I've stuck together completely unedited:

                                         

Ancillary Text: Product Research: Band Websites

Here are a few websites for bands that I have been looking at:

• http://www.palmaviolets.co.uk/

                      

• http://www.foals.co.uk
  
  
  

• http://peaceforeverever.co.uk/
  
  
  
  

• http://www.pulppeople.com/

• http://www.blur.co.uk/

• http://www.davidbowie.com/

Something I have noticed about these websites is that they are all quite simple and don't really have much on. Also that many of them have a clip of the band playing live on there. This has made me decide that I will do something similar to these, have a simplistic website with a clip of the band playing live and possibly something else on there that makes the website a little bit more interesting, such as a quiz like the one on the Blur website.

Actors

I have chosen to use Jack Cowley as the actor for my music video. Jack is a friend who I have played music with in the past. He was around when I wrote the song 'Lost', and so understands what the song is about. This being so I have asked him to act as the character as he will know how this person feels and they how to portray these feelings onto screen.

Jack has also had some experiance in acting, having played some rolles in small productions done in the past for AS students.

He also has a slight edgy look about him that I can play on to make him seem plausible to be someone who is influenced drugs. Here is an image of him:

 

 

Although he doesn't look that rough in this picture I will be able to create the look that I am looking for in the character with Jack's appearance quite easily.