My music video

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

This is an example of the feedback I got from facebook. Facebook helped alot as a media technology for my feedback.

Wikipedia helped me for research on different codes and conventions for my genre- it helped me to get a better understanding of much of my research. It helped me to look up in detail different films. 

Google images helped in my research alot. I googled different pig masks to use, i used it to google album covers, digitpaks, environment, first person perspective, all sorts of things which were influenced in my work throughout. 

Amazon was used to purchase the mask for my media film. As well as a number of other ones which i didnt use because they were too small and not at horrifying. 

Youtube was used to watch tutorials on how to use different media technologies such as pretzi and wordle. It was also used to watch short films and music videos. One video i found on youtube with influenced my work greatly was smack my bi*ch up. it was also used to upload my video. 

Netflix was not intentially used for this project however it benefitted me in different ways because it gave me different ideas while watching films of interest to me personally. It also gave me more of a learning on camera shots, it make me naturally connote and deconnot the codes and conventions of different aspects in film and media. 

Itunes was used to get the song which i already had for my music video. 

Using web 2.0 enabled me to gain immediate feedback from my audience which makes things easier and faster. If I had made a questionaire it would have taken longer and it is secondary information which is alot less quicker and less to the point or personal. 

The information gathered for my film was very helpful and I used some ideas for the finished version of my music video. 

The most important media i used was the digital camera. I used it to make my music video. I used a Canon camera to take better pixilated shots for my ancillaries. 

Photoshop was used for much editing on my ancillaries. Imovie was used to edit shots and cut shots and trim shots, speed up and slow down different shots, and essentially it was used to put together all my shots to create the film. 

The only problem with the internet was different connection problems I had throughout, things took longer to load, I needed a java script update for wordle, youtube videos wouldnt load properly and it froze on my home computer with different skype click to call problems on chrome. 

Apart from the downfalls of using the internet i could not have created any of this project. Blogger is the vital website i used as i need it to create posts on what i have been doing. I need the internet for research on my film. Aswell as the internet watching alot of movies and music videos on television helped me gain information on genre types and camera shots. deno and connotations. Looking in stores such as HMV enabled me to see different album covers for my ancillary work. 

Overall i have gained alot of information and understanding by learning to use new media technologies for my work. 

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

Question 2: How effective is your combination of your main product and your ancillary texts?

This shows my music video (Top Left) my promotion poster (Top Right) and my Digipak (Bottom Left) 

As you can see they all link with one another. The only downfall on this which I didn't realise was the actual video is all done in blak and white while the digipak and poster are done with a orange and brown colouring. The writing however is only black and white. Except for the Digipak back where there is a promotion to download the video. I did this in red so it grabs the audience's attention. 

The writing for both digipak and poster are the same. The writing was downloaded from

  DA FONT 

and is called "faith collapsing" which i like because it gives a edgy sort of feel to it. It also goes with the circus themed background. The background matches in both ancillaries and sort of could be related to drugs as it is weird and wonderful. It also draws you into the center of what is leading to so is more eyecatching for my target audience.  

Question 1: In what way's does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

There was two types of genre I initially chose for my music video.  I had to make sure that both genres collided together well to create a successful and decent music video.  Because for a music video there is two key media types, one being sound, another being film, I had to find the genre for both the music, and the genre for the video. The song I chose was initially from a band called Massive Attack. They specialise in Trip Hop- which is a downtempo electronic, hybrid genre using elements from hip hop, jazz, soul, funk, R&B, and dub reggae. This is seen through the song I chose, expect it was a remixed version of the song by Bassnectar. Who took interest in remixing music from Metal bands such as Megadeth, Metallica and Nirvanna. Bassnectar's music is also essentially hybrid. However Bassnectars music always has some sort of Bass (Clues in the title name) and Dubstep, electro, techno and dance. 
This is a link to one of Massive Attacks songs: 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DTQ6JjAEdGA

This is a link to one of Bassnectars songs:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GtrwN-Cxor8

To make this collide well with the genre of the music video I decided to chose horror. The song in itself is very dark- making it the perfect choice for a horror music video. To make this work I wanted a hybrid music video- so including elements from the teen drama genre, alcohol and drug intake- this makes my music video work well. 
The conventions of a Horror Genre are:

The conventions of a Teen Drama are: 

The conventions of electronic dub music are:

The conventions of a music video include:

In my music video, I have used conventions from ALL for areas of genre representation and the key conventions for ALL areas looked at and researched for my music video. These areas are what my audience will expect to see in A) A music video, B) A genre on the narrative of the music video, C) A video promoting a song from the dubstep genre. My audience are people who listen to such music, I am one of the audience who likes the type of music. If I didn't conform to the codes and conventions for all 4 aspects of creating the music video then it would not appeal to my target audience and it wouldn't be successful because it wouldn't follow the expectations my audience would have while watching a music video of this particular genre. But because I have codes and conventions for all aspects of the genre, and the music, I have used music video camera shots, I have synced the shots to the beat of the music (which is vital when making a successful music video), I have matched the dark bassline drops with a dark genre, essentially my audience are getting exactly what they expected. In theory. But to make this even better they are getting a shocking experience when the beat drops as well as a clear narrative. 

I have tried to interpret as many different codes and conventions as possible which would be relevant for my film. The main aspect of the music video essentially is the drop. The music builds up, and as it does so, the images and what the person is doing get more extreme. The change in the music reflects the change in the characters well being. Starting first only with scenes to get ready which we presume to go out, which are correct, the music changes when the character consumes alcohol and when the beat gets faster graphic images of drug usage. We know there is a build up to a certain point in the song because the type of genre contains a drop throughout every song. We expect a drop and we get one. The music slows down before the drop, as does the movement of the character, finally falling down the stairs from the consumption of drugs and alcohol. My audience know this because they have consumed drugs and alcohol and understand what it is like not being sober. The drop is the main element because it is the change in atmosphere, a change in mood and emotion, the scene changes and becomes much more panicked and distressed. This is something the audience are drawn to, entertained by, and feel part of because it is all done in first person. 

These are some shots of my music video next to the "Smack My B*tch up" video from the prodigy. My video is in black + white.

This shot is used in the Prodigy video which demonstrates a person getting ready and doing things we has people do everyday- and when we are getting ready to go out. This shot is used in my video for the target audience to understand and expect what is going on. 

This shot of drinking showing in 1st person perspective the character which though our eyes to be seen as yourself pouring a drink. This works because you know you are consuming alcohol from the glass bottle and the mise-en-scene. This makes the audience expect the person to be getting drunker. 

This shot shows "yourself" snorting some sort of illegal drug substance which is to make you more energetic and wild. Because the audience expect this to effect how you are and act they are expecting different camera effects to make the character change throughout the video. 

This is two similar shots showing a tilting shot and camera effects. I did not have the technology on photoshop to use the same effect, so I used a blur effect and a tilting camera to demonstrate someone who is under the influence of drugs and alcohol, effecting their balance and different aspects of life. The only difference in my video is that the drunk consumption leads to horrific hallucinations which cannot be escaped until the ending of the song where it is rounded and concluded by different shots of the whole weird night and the final shot being in reverse on the stairs getting up and realising it was just a black out and the character is fine. This bit is done in silent because it gives more of an effect on the overall ending. 

Ancillaries

This is my Digitpak template. I chose to ass in tour dates because it will advertise the band more. The back cover have a "official music video" download to advertise the video because that is the main element of the whole selling of it. 

Ancillarys

For my ancillary I have to make the cd artwork. 

I looked at both a Album CD and a Single CD.

I am going to release my song as a single because it is both Bassnectar & Massive Attack made. So I figured by doing a single, one song, I would make a higher profit income by selling one song separately rather than a bunch of songs. 

This would mean there would be no back cover for my single CD just the front and information on the inside. The song will clearly be stated on the front because it is the new release of one song and not lots, which means it would be a single not a album. 

This is the CD Album- Nirvana. Because they released lots of songs they need a album. I like the layout and the simple cover. Simple is effective if you have too much going on in the cover it can be made to look too busy and you loose interest in looking at it. 

This is the leaflet found inside. This contains pictures of the band and lyrics to their songs. Because my song has no lyrics I don't need a lyric book. 

This is the single I looked at. With only two songs (You sometimes have a extra song with the new released one) There is alot more infomation. 

Having done this research i believe it is wise i do a single because the song is a remixed song from two different bands. Therefore there cant be a album because it isnt from one band. 

Feedback

I posted my video to facebook for further feedback on what needs done to create the final final piece!

Decided that I should use a silence at the end of the song to demonstrate the fear and isolation to create a even more horrible effect! Also will use more shots of different things happening. Stereotypical scenes used for codes and conventions in the Horror category such as the classic "turn around once, not there, turn around again and its there!" Maybe flashings of the pig man getting closer! Lots of good feedback. This has help me and benefited in my work to give me a much clearer understand on what I need to do to improve!

Genre Theory

"Genre theory is used in the study of films in order to facilitate the categorization of films. Genre are dependent on various factors such as story line, whom the director is, what are the audience expectations et cetera. In using genre theory we create a short cut in how we are to describe films. Genre theory through it's use is a method of shortening academic works."
- http://www.main-vision.com/richard/genre.shtml

This links into my props and costume because it is important to understand the codes and conventions of different things in my music video to represent the genre and give the audience what they are looking for and what they expect. My codes and conventions is the powder substance used- this appeals to my audience as they automatically know what it is. The pig masks is a massive code for horror, as the rural area, the lighting.
The black and white theme i think is very good as you cannot see the colour of the pig mask or the colour of anything in the house. I did this because while filming different lightings make it less effective and with my camera this could be a problem. Also because it is different and people like different. It doesnt really effect the genre, but its still good!

Media Language

Representation 

The character in my music video so far with the shots is represented as a girl.
We know this because when she goes to the toilet we see her take toilet roll to wipe. We immediately presume its a girl because of this. The hands that are constantly shown are very delicate looking and feminine. This is also another code for the representation of the character to be a girl. The leopard print bed sheets shown in the background while the character is rolling a cigarette represents a female as leopard print is associated with girls and is seen as sexy and animalistic- (wild). We then see the type of drink consumed by the character which slightly subverts the representation of a girl. The drink is very strong, but a mixture of spirit and beer. (Beer is a code for a male drink) - the powder substance consumed by the character twists the representation of the girl around as it is seen more as a male thing to do because it isn't delicate. We still know it is a girl though. But our thoughts of the character have degraded. 

The representation of the man in the pig mask completely changes the genre around when he is first seen. The pig character is represented as very mysterious as he does not say anything. His posture, position and when he appears or is just there in the shots is very horrible and is a big code for the representation of horror. When we see him (we know it is male because of the build and the type of mask and the hair and costume) he is just stood as different places. A unexpected encounter. He is represented as a villain which is a made code for the horror genre or film. 

Narrative

My narrative is somewhat strange. There is two main stages. Before and after. The first stage is clearly seen as someone getting ready to go out. Having a shower, going to the toilet, having a fag, and drinking. When you see them consuming drugs it is quite surprising and in ways unexpected. This is the turning point of the video as things start to happen which put forth the horror representation. The narrative continues- someone, a girl, getting ready to go out, does the final chapter of getting less and less sober until the point she falls and blanks out. We don't know what the power is so we cannot tell if it affected her that quickly. However the falling was influenced by all the alcohol intake. (Some strong drinks). After this point we see her leave the house and the song then changes. So something much more violent and sinister. And from this point all the strange sightings are seen. The character never actually gets to the destined place. And I think perhaps that is something I need to work on as we just see her walking down a road. When the whole purpose of her doing all these things before she left the house was to go out. 

Genre

The genre is a mixture of two different types. The first type is a teen genre where the audience can relate to the actions made. The second half is horror. The song goes with both genres very well. And the music video is in sync with the genre. As the song drogs which makes the genre turn slightly. The genre is seen though the alcohol and drug and smoking intakes. The horror is seen outstandingly well from the villain (the man in the pig mask) and the darkness location- a rural area with no one around. Street lights so you know it is dark this shows the representation of the genre well. 

Audience 

My audience are those who can relate to going out and having a good time, and those who like horror films. So people around my age and older. The audience are NOT younger children as they wouldn't understand the first half of the video. The second half of the video is for the same audience only the more sinister type. It has a very surprising turn and is unexpected which the audience will like because it is very dark. 

Permission to Use Song

In order for my music video to be accepted within the copyright laws I would have to get permission to use the song. If I did not get permission to use the song it would be a breech of copyright issues.