Sunday 27 November 2011

Evaluation of Music Video

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

Our media product uses typical forms and conventions that other music videos of the same, or of a similar genre use by incorporating the conventional link between music and visuals. For example: The lip-syncing, dancing and in this case, enjoyable and funny visuals. Our music video is a mix between narrative based and performance based, and our interpretation of the lyrics from the song Truth or Dare is different to most other peoples, who might interpret it as being about a girl or love etc. We took it, and used it as an excuse to perform and execute as series of ‘dares’. By doing this, we challenged the conventions of many other music videos of the same genre, drawing our inspiration from such artists and Weezer, whose music video Pork and Beans made us want to do dares such as mentos & coke. Despite a lot of the stunts we attempted being cut out of the final version of the video, we still maintain that videos like Pork and Beans were our primary inspiration.

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

The main theme we decided to use for the music video was the idea of incorporating comedy into a rock music video, which included the use of morph-suits in the video as well as performing stunts to the lyrics of the song. In order to parallel with the final shot in the music video, our first album cover concept was of the three morph-men walking away from the camera. However, unlike in the video itself, the three men were not wearing their morph-suits. The idea for this was a parody of Eminem’s album Recovery, where it depicts the artist walking on a road to recovery. However, we decided to do the same but instead depicting the three men on their own ‘road to recovery’, having gotten over their sudden lack of judgement and sanity with the morph-suits. However, this idea was scrapped as it was a single instead of an album cover. Instead, because the album cover isn’t just for the song Truth or Dare, we decided to go for a more classic approach by using a ‘pink spider’ (name of the band, The Pink Spiders) chasing after the members of the band. Their shadows would instead be the colours of the morph-suits, because the song Truth or Dare would be the main song on the album. For the magazine advert, we decided to go for a more minimalist approach, by simply putting the lead singer of the band on a pink background whilst holding the morph-suits in his hands. We knew we couldn’t make the morph-suits from the music video the main focus for everything, so instead we decided to put it in the ads and album covers as a subtle reference, rather than a main focus.

What have you learnt from your audience feedback?

From the audience feedback after the viewing of our music video, we learnt that they enjoyed the fact that it incorporated comedy into the video, saying that it is unconventional and keeps the audience glued to the screen and laughing the entire way through. We also learnt that it still demonstrated the genre of the song, and contained accurate lip-syncing that made the video have a more rock ‘n’ roll feel. The scenes where we sped up the men in the morph-suits were also praised, saying that they added to the humour. They also enjoyed the opening sequence, which was entirely improvised. It introduced the song and the content inside, giving a reason behind why the men were doing stunts in morph-suits, rather than just doing stunts.
However, there were things we could have improved on. For example, in the editing process, we could have used more filters to give the video a more ‘professional’ feel. Also, the lip-syncing shots where the lead singer was dancing could have been livelier; it made the video seem a little more boring at times than it should have been.
 I’ve learnt that the idea of the music video was good; the idea of incorporating comedy in a rock video worked and was successful. However, it lacked a professional feel, and I’ve learnt that if I was today do it again, then more time must be put in to the editing process rather than just the filming.

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

When planning the video, we used a digital camera to take location shots and practice shots of what we hoped to use in the final video itself. We also used blogger.com to document our progress on the video, and its construction etc.
We used Sony HD Camcorders to film the video itself, and then edited the footage on Final Cut Express, which was an invaluable resource in finishing the video. When creating the digi-pak and the magazine advert, we again used the digital cameras and Adobe Photoshop to take the pictures and edit them to our own specifications.
We then used blogger.com again to evaluate our process, video and gain feedback from other groups.

Evaluation of music video

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
Our media product challenges the conventions of real media products by showing humor. We took inspirtion from a few existing music videos such as 'The Artic Monkeys-Florescent adolescent' and 'Weezer-Pork and Beans'. the main reason why it challenges the concept of real music products is becasue there are not many existing music videos that use morphsuits as costumes.

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

The main project centered around the theme of humor/ comedy and the morphsuits, so the morphsuits as comedy featured continuously throughout our product. However when creating our digi pack and magazine advert we could only hint at these as we werent creating a single but an album. so we needed to show a reflection of the band and not just that single.

What have you learnt from your audience feedback?

I have laernt that the lypsincing is vital in having a successful music video, having structure to our work and the importance of having fillters in your product so it makes it look more professional. But one main thing i have laernt is having a back up plan if anything goes wrong. This is where we fell down in our project, as we were rushed to finish our project by the deadline resulting in our project not looking as professional as we wanted it to be.

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

We used media technologies during and after the construction, research, planning and evaluation stages. We used final cut express to edit our product and merge all our footage together. We also used a digital camera to take photos of areas and locations where we could shoot our project. Another media technologie which was used was photoshop, we used phtotshop to help create our CD cover and our magazine advert.

Saturday 26 November 2011

Evaluation of Music Video

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
Our aim was to show the humourous side of music video's we took inspiration from existing video's such as 'Fluorescent Adolescent - Arctic Monkey's' and 'Stay Awake - Example' . I believe this idea challenged the concept of real media products, as no other existing music video has used morphsuits. Therefore, I believe this supports the claim that we challenged the forms and conventions as instead of intepreting the single as a song about love, we used it as an excuse to perform daring and humour-based stunts. Despite many of our stunts getting cut, such as the mentos and cola took from 'Weezer - Pork and Beans'.

How effective is the combination of your main product and ancilliary texts?
The main project centred around morphsuits, so they figure alot in our music video, however we could only hint at this in our magazine advert and digipak cover - as we needed to show a full reflection of the band and not just about the single. In order to parallel with the last scene in the video of the three morph-men walking away from camera, we used 'Eminem's Recovery' album for inspiration. This showed the artist walking away from the camera, indicating his road to recovery after his drug problems. We wanted to parody this with our own road to recovery, shedding ourselves of the antics performed in the morph-suits for a final time. However, this approach was scrapped and replaced with the idea of incorporating a spider turned pink in keeping with the bands name. We knew, the digipak and advertisement couldn't heavily side with the idea of the morphsuits as we had to show the bands image as a whole.

What have you learnt from your audience feedback?
I have learnt how vital the lip-synching is to the music video, and also the importance of having a structure to our work and filming as well as a contigency plan if anything goes wrong. This is where we fell down in our project, as we were rushed to finish by the deadline. To develop our idea, we were encouraged to include more daring scenes with the morph-suits if we were to do it again. Time constraints restricted what we could include, therefore it didnt look as good as we hoped. Furthermore, to be more creative with the lip-synching, because with lack of time, the background looked quite bland. Whereas with a bit more thought and time on our side, we had ideas of filming in Cambridge town centre and places around college.

How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?
When planning and taking test shots/footage for our initial ideas we used a digital camera, this enabled us to take multiple pictures to use in the planning stage. We also used 'blogger.com' to document our progress and post relevant images and test footage we had taken. We used a Sony HD Camcorder to film our video and then edited our crafted these clips using Final Cut Express, this became an invaluable piece of software for us, especially when cutting and editing our footage as the deadline approached. Lastly, we used Adobe Photoshop we created both our digipak cover and magazine advertisement.

Thursday 17 November 2011

Feedback From Class

After everyone viewing our video, they gave us valuable information on what we did well and most importantly, what we need to improve on. The feedback that we were given due to things we did correctly consisted of; 

  • It was humorous: The use of the morph-suits was unconventional and funny to the audience, it kept people watching and laughing along with the music video.
  • It demonstrates the genre of the song
  • The lip syncing was good: The lead singer got into the singing and gave out a rock 'n' roll sense and vibe
  • Effects: The sped up scenes were good and very attention-grabbing
  • Enjoyed the opening sequence where the characters were introduced

The feedback we were given about the things we did wrong or could have improved on were;

  • Editing: Could have used filters and made it seem more professional
  • Lip syncing: The shots with the lead singer were slightly boring, could have used more effects.
Overall, we are quite pleased with our feedback and agree that given slightly more time, we could have made the editing much better and gotten more shots with the lead singer, perhaps in a better location.

Ace Frehley - The Girl Can't Dance: Pitch.

The scene can open with four guys standing next to a table with drinks on it (symbolize where they are), while they watch a girl on the dancefloor who is horrific at dancing. The four of them laugh with each, before the music begins.

The camera then shows the scale of the party, perhaps including around 7 - 10 extras, as well as the four guys and the girl herself - ask around college for volunteers.

The different locations and shots are key for the video to work, so the use of establishing shots, canted angles, close-ups and panning shots are vital for an effective music video. These are the proposed locations:

  1. The party, where the girls antics are being filmed and laughed at without her realising.
  2. The next day, where groups of people all over cambridge are watching and laughing at the girls dancing on their phones (Youtube)
  3. Lip-syncing shots, set in Cambridge City Centre, as well as in the party itself.
The video is going to link to the lyrics word for word, but instead of a romantic sort of setting, it's going to be humorous in an effort to appeal to more of an audience.

Auteur Study: Hammer & Tongs (Garth Jennings & Nick Goldsmith)

Hammer & Tongs is a pseudonym used by director of films and music videos Garth Jennings, and producer Nick Goldsmith. The pair have worked together on numerous occations, doing both music videos and films such as Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. They have also worked on many music videos such as: Blur - Coffee & TV, Supergrass - Pumping Your Stereo & Radiohead - Lotus Flower.


I chose to look at these two because they have both made at least 27 music videos, and 2 films. A lot can be learnt from their technique's and videos themselves, and are a good pair to use as inspiration for our own video.

Progress Report: 17/11/2011

Tasks that have yet to be completed are:

  • Uploading of three videos: Test Shots, Rough Cut & Final Cut of the music video. Upload to youtube, and then embed the videos onto the blog itself.
  • Contact the artist: Research into The Pink Spiders to find out if they can be contacted or not - try using Twitter.
  • Magazine Cover
As of the 16/11/2011, the music video, rough cut and test shots are all finished and have been converted into quicktime files and ready for upload. The digi-pak appears to be nearing completion as well, and we are all happy with the outcome of the final video.