Evaluation Tasks - Kiefer

media evaluation
by: kiefer.page

magazine advert final

digipak final

The overall feedback for our video was that it had a variety of camera angles, transitions and shot types.  the main criticism was that we didn't include enough cuts which brought the pace of the video down, which then didn't fit the tempo of the song at certain points. however we where credited on our use of mise-en-scene such as costumes, props and location.

Digipack Analysis

We are going to take a idea from this digipack by having the front and back cover with the same sort of picture that blend with each other, We are going to what they have done with clouds but with a brick wall, we will have them both the same effect but on the front cover it will have the name of the band and maybe the digipack name.

They keep the same theme through out the digipack which we will also do with our theme 'typical london'

On the back cover of our digipack we will have the information like, the songs on the CD, special features and maybe bonus tracks or bonus footage.

Although the layout of our digipack will be different to this one by The Verve, we can still use it as inspiration for our digipack, by concentrating on the pictures and text used.
the cover and back of this digipack is a scenic view of clouds, there is also pictures of these clouds inside but mainly the pictures inside are of the band performing at various venues. some pictures of the band have a caption describing the picture or a quote from a band member, said about the picture. this gives an insight in to a more personal side of the band members and can be used to build their star persona, this is an idea we might use in our digipack.

previous student magazine adverts

 As a group we looked at magazine adverts done by previous students so we could se what works and what is possible when it comes to making our own magazine advert. we analysed the two adverts below and agreed that the plain picture of someone holding a guitar is more effective and fits the genre, however the text was too boring and there wasn't enough. whereas the other advert had a bad picture that didn't fit any specific genre or sold the artist but has much better formatted and detailed text on top.

We are planning to use a simple yet effective picture of the artist and include detailed text that in a format that fits the genre.

extra night filming

On tuesday the 6th of november, we filmed some extra footage to fill in the blanks left in our video. We all met at kiefer's house and started filming the footage we needed. we started off filming the footage we needed inside the house first and then went outside to get some footage of the street. however once we started filming outside it was pitch black, we expected it to be dark but not as dark as it was, even though we did have torches, we had to rely mainly on the lights of streetlamps. this severely limited were we could film because once we were outside the reach of the streetlamps it was too dark for the cameras to see anything. Unfortunately our friends were not able to join us on this extra night filming so we were not able to film any performance pieces. however we had planed incase this happened and were still able to film decent footage that will fit in the music video.

Rough Cut Feedback - Holly

- You need to re-frame some of your shots, look carefully at what you can/want to see and alter this in final cut.

-You need more cutaways, angles and also the camera need to more.

- Is there a link between the band and the storyline? - make it more clear.

half term homework - task five

The five videos I watched by OKgo where:

1. get over it
2. here it goes again
3. this too shall pass
4. white knuckles
5. needing/getting

how would you describe their star persona
I would describe their star persona as being a band that dont take themselves too seriously and enjoy having a laugh and a good time. The video's portray them to be unique and unlike a stereotypical band and makes a statement that they are not trying to be like anyone else.

what use of Goodwins theory is used in their videos
in the majority of their videos there was no use of editing on the beat but there would still be a relationship between the visuals and the music through what was physically happening, for example in "needing/getting" it shows things being hit at the same time as the beat. There are no examples of a relationship between the visuals and the lyrics in the video except for in "get over it" where there is several examples of this, such as when the lyrics says "hey" the camera shows a pile of hay.
there are no examples of voyuerism throughout any of the videos. Every single video revolves around the artists which provides the need to sell the artist. there are no examples of intertextuality. The video for "get over it" is the only one that includes any examples of genre characteristics, with a performance and instruments included in the video.

how would you describe their target audience
I would say they dont have a specific target audience but are making music for anyone who likes it to buy, it would consist more of a young indie crowd but would spread out across many types of audiences.

how are they attempting to appeal to an alternative audience
they are attempting to appeal to an alternative audince by having unique and entertaining music videos, these videos attract viewers who have never heard of the song or band because they are amusing and fun to watch. this attracts an audience who may not be usually intrested in the genre or style of music.

how would you describe the target audience for your music video
the target audience for our music video would be a stereotypical indie crowd consisting mainly of young people.

how are you attempting to target that audience


we are attempting to target that audience by using a stereotypical indie rock looking band and including many characeristics and conventions of a stereotypical indie rock music video.

half term homework - task four

TV channels such as Channel AKA will not play our music video because it doesnt fit in with the genre they play on their channel, however channels such as Kerrang and Mtv Rocks would play our music video because it fits their genre, and then channels such as starz will also play our muic video because they play every genre.

a few online chnnels may play our music video such as bandarockchannel on youtube would post our music video on their online blog whereas SBtv, another music channel on youtube, would definately not play our music video because it doesnt fit into their genre or style of music.

half term homework - task three

Artists use social media, such as twitter, to inform their fans directly about any projects they are working on or albums that may be released soon. for example if Lady Gaga made a tweet about her new album it could be seen by nearly 31 million people who follow her, and since they follow her it means they are her fans and are interested, but it would also be visible to other people on twitter as well. they may also use social media to improve their star persona, by tweeting about world events they can show people that they are "caring" and "nice" people, which means people will like them more.

we could use social media to increase the consumption of our music video by posting it online and creating some kind of competition that would require them to watch the video to win.

half term homework - task two

as a group, our original idea for the ancillary products was to have a "British" theme as the band is british. we were going to include a stereotypical London scene with red buses, London taxis, red telephone box and an underground sign.
we examples of this and practised using photoshop techniques on them such as making the picture black and white except for everything red, which emphasises the buses and telephone boxes.

our digi pack will have a "British" themed cover and back with pictures of the band and band members on the inside. these pictures will show the band in stereotypical indie clothes but not the same as in the music video. the location will also be different to the one used in the video.

our magazine advert will be linked by also using the "British" theme with text about the album and a rating.

half term homework - task one

analysing our roughcut music video using Goodwins framework. goodwins six points are :

1. genre characteristics
2. relationship between visuals and lyrics
3. relationship between visuals and music
4. need to sell artist
5. intertextuality
6. voyeurism

genre characteristics

throughout our music video we demonstrate different examples of characteristics that are conventional of the indie rock genre.Our video mainly concentrates on the band performing and resolves around the lead singer of the band which are characteristic's of an indie rock music video. Instruments are also often used in indie rock video's and close ups of instruments such as guitars are characteristics which are included in our roughcut music video.

relationship between the visuals and the lyrics

There is no direct link between the visuals in our video and the lyrics of the song, mainly because our music video revolves around the performance rather than a story line.

relationship between the visuals and the music

our roughcut music video includes several examples of editing on the beat such as cutting to a different scene when the chorus starts. also we show examples of changing the tempo of the editing to match the tempo of the song, so when the tempo speeds up we have faster cuts and editing.

need to sell artist

Our roughcut music video resolve around the band and in particular the lead singer. this means the audience's attention is centred on the artist and provides the need to sell the artist.

intertextuality

we include one example of intertexuality, one of the guitarist in the band is wearing a hat with "your demise" written across the front, which is a band from a similar genre. we include a close up of this but it can also be seen in other shots however only people with knowledge of the genre would notice it.

voyeurism

Our roughcut music video has a strong theme of voyeurism with the side story consisting of the girl sitting on the bench waiting for someone, all the shots are taken without her knowledge of being watched. we also include one example of voyeurism towards the band while they are performing.

the five things we would do to improve are:

1.  including an example of a relationship between the visuals and the lyrics
2. including more variety of cinematography
3. include more costume changes
4. include more location changes
5. include more editing on the beat

with an extra night filming we would, fill in the blanks in our roughcut by filming more footage. the footage would include a costume change and a location change.

roughcut video

focused and ambient audiences

We have to think about David Buckingham's theory hat some audiences are not as deliberate or active in their consumption. In his theory there are two types of audience:
a focused audience: deliberately choosing a music video watch and carefully looking at the contents.
an ambient audience: that will have videos on in the background and will take in the content with glances.

we will be accommodating for the focused audiences by including a linear story line and story narrative however it will also accommodate to Ambient audiences because it is strongly focused on the performance and quick editing, as well as costume and location changes throughout.

ideal audience type

Our ideal audience would be indie teenagers, although indie rock is mostly aimed at boys are song will also attract girls because it can be considered a type of "love" song. it is often you get people aged older than 25 or younger than 13 listening to indie rock so this will be our expected audience. indie is a genre that is not only expressed through a style of music but also a style of clothing and their attitude towards the "mainstream" way of thinking. we would expect this type of audience because they will be of the same genre as the band and song.

digital technologies

While making our music video we have had to use many different types of digital technologies. the first we had to use before anything was itunes as we had to download the song we were using, this was an advantage because it meant we could play the music while filming outside.
another thing that was useful was the video camera because it had spot focus which came in very handy when filming the close up on the phone when the girl texting. we are using final cut express to do our music video because it is the software we are most familiar with, however we are still not sure on how to use everything the software offers. Although we are still learning how to fully use the technologies, we have used them all before which means we are capable of using them to our advantage.

problems and success with editing

first day editing- we haven't had any problems so far apart from the fact that the first few lines of the song have been shot from the same angle, however we over come this problem by cutting to and from the performance shots and split them up so it changes angel and shots frequently. we have started editing by first putting the lip-syncing at the beginning of the video in line with the song and then edited and cut around that.

second day editing- we have realised that we haven't filmed enough footage for a certain section of the song, we debating cutting up over footage trying to create a montage to fill the space but we then decided to go out and film again on the 5th of november. although the group are certainly available we had to check that our friends are available as well and they are. we carried on editing the other parts of the video which went well.

third day editing-started to place clips for the last section of the song to establish exactly what points we need to film. Grant edited for 45 minute while Kiefer blogged and then they switched so they could both have some time editing, when they went to switch they discussed what they had done so the other knew what needed to be done and didn't waste time on something that the other had already completed. It became apparent which pars we would need to film.

editing in a professional video

we looked at two professional music video's and counted the number of cuts used in each to get a rough idea of how many should be used. in the video above (pixie lott-boys and girls) we counted 152 cuts and in the video below (one direction-live while we're young) we counted 154 cuts. this is a very high amount and tells us that we need to include as many cuts as we possibly can to give it a more professional feel. We were told that the average cuts for a student music video is around 30, this is no where near a professional standard and we will aim to include a lot more cuts than the student average, even if it isn't possible for us to include over 150 cuts we will use as many as we can.

filming

On sunday 14th of october we filmed the majority of our music video. We agreed to meet at Kiefer's house at 2 o'clock however everybody showed up early so we were set up and ready to film by 2 o'clock. Our friends showed up and supplied us with one guitar and a microphone as we asked them to. Kiefer supplied the other guitar but didn't have a guitar strap so our friends drove back to their house to get one for us. we had already brought the song on itunes so we set up a docking station up outside so we could hear the song properly while filming.

once everyone was there and all equipment and props were ready we sat down and discussed exactly what we were planning to do and referred to the shot list and story board so everybody knew exactly what needed to be done.

once filming we had very few problems other than heavy rain towards the end of our time spent filming, however we had already filmed all the performance parts of our video. Our friends left as we no longer needed their help and we waited for the rain to stop, once it did we carried on filming. 

We tried to include some of Goodwins six points. We used intertextuality by having a guitarist wearing a hat with the name of a band from a genre.  We also used examples of voyeurism when filming the female in the video. The focus of the definatly the lead singer of the band, he is stood in front of everyone and centred. We also included genre characteristics of an indie video such as guitars and performance clips. Other points such as a relationship between the music and the video will be applied during the editing process.

above is a location picture of Kiefer's house, where we done the majority of the filming.