Note to the Moderator

Dear Moderator

Thank you for taking the time to look at my blogs, I hope you like them! My group blog is linked to my individual blog, you will find the group blog link on the right. There is also a link to the blogs for the other students in my group and a link back to our teacher's central blog, called the 'Latymer Media Music Video Blog', which has links to all the student and group blogs.

On my individual blog, you will find my individual research and initial ideas and planning, mainly from the early stages of the project before I got together with my group. You will also find my reflections on the development of the project as it progressed and the answers to the evaluation questions, which are in the form of video discussions we completed as a group. These have been posted to the group blog as well.

On my group blog, you will find evidence of my group’s planning and project developmental work right from the beginning of the project until the end. You will also find any research we did together that influenced and inspired us throughout the project.

My group chose to produce an album cover and a website homepage (a myspace page) as a well as a music video – these are all linked to both of my blogs.

I hope you find it easy to navigate my blogs. Everything is organised in date order from the start of the project in June 2009 until we finished in December 2009. I have used labels to identify all the research, planning and evaluation work I have completed on my individual blog. On the group blog, we have used the same system and any posts that I contributed to, or were individually responsible for, are labelled with my name.

Thanks :)

Bhavika Popat  

candidate number - 5665

Evaluation Clips

We have chosen some clips from our music video to go with the evaluation. At various points in my answers to the evaluation questions I have mentionned time codes when discussing specific clips from our video and these refer to the above video which contains those clips.

Conventions of Music Videos (Points time-coded and related to Evaluation Question 1)

According to Andrew Goodwin


• Demonstrate genre characteristics
- Concept based, abstract
- Quirkiness, weirdness – leaves going up (0:00) masked figure (0:03)
- Mystery, ambiguity – not revealing masked figure shots (0:05)
• Relationship between lyrics and visuals
- Mostly amplification
- Illustration –‘play my ace’ shot (0:11) and ‘eyes on fire’ shot (0:13)
• Relationship between music and visuals
- editing to the beat – waking up (0:19), fire (0:21), mask on/off face (0:24)
• Close-ups – CU shots (0:28)
• Voyeurism
- In the sense of watching – mirror shots (0:34), masked person in background at beginning (0:36)
- Challenged the voyeuristic treatment of the female body – not sexualised
• Intertextual references - Alice in Wonderland, ET,

According to Carol Vernallis:

NARRATIVE
• The narrative is not complete, is partial and disjointed, no closure, ambiguous
• Disjointed structure – different locations, not continuous in forest, jumps around for example the shots in the tunnel near the end(0:39)
• Driven by the enigma, the mystery
• Poses questions – What is happening? What does the masked person represent? (from the beginning when the masked person is in the background)
• Very thematic – self-discovery, obsession, multiple personalities

EDITING
• Editing to the beat – waking up(0:19), fire (0:21), mask on/off face (0:24)
• Broke rules of continuity editing – cutting within lyrics, 30 degree rule
• Is fore grounded – beginning trees out of focus ‘blinking' (0:42)
• Style – beginning is dreamy, then cuts to the beat
CAMERA MOVEMENT
• Extreme shots used and placed next to each other - CU to LS (0:47)
• CUs used frequently and master shots within sections
• Camera does not move in time with music or lyrics – we challenged this

DIEGESIS
• Revealed slowly – revealing shots of masked figure (0:05)
• Masked figure moves to the music when running – running shot (0:51)
• Gaps in audience’s understanding
• Repetitions of trees, certain close up shots, hands against tree and wall shots (0:54)

Sample Analysis Chart - Evaluation Question 1

In preparation for our evaluation we filled in these analysis grids that outline the conventions of music videos according to Andrew Goodwin adn Carol Vernallis. We also looked at the conventions of album covers and band/artist website homepages. Here is a sample of an analysis chart I filled in:

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

Reflections

I led the discussion to this question and I think we covered most of the points quite well as a group as we spent the longest time on it. We refered to specific shots in our discussion so I have included my notes with the time codes even though we covered these points in our discussion. There were points that I wanted to bring up however I think we managed to cover them as a group. I do have some additional points to add about our album cover and Myspace.

Additional Points

Music Video

We compared our music video to Panic at the Disco's music video for 'I Write Sins Not Tragedies', which can also be classified as alternative/indie rock.



There are many similarities between the music video we created and the music video for this single as they are both conceptual and abstract but also contain performance and narrative.

• Our video features a masked person while this video features characters with painted white faces and this element makes the video quite surreal and different. This weirdness is a signifier of the alternative/indie rock.
• The idea of these strange charaters crashing a normal situation (a wedding) again makes the video quirky and surreal and so transports the viewers into another world as our video does through the concept delivered by the masked figure and the shot where the leaves blow upwards.
• The performance in both is often angry,aggressive and powerful. This is also often evident in the perofrmance aspect of videos in this genre.

Florence and the Machine - Dog Days Are Over



We compared our music video to this one as well. The video is quirky and unique to the style of the artist. We particularly liked the angles of some shots and shots where the camera was placed on the ground. The artist is blindfolded for a while and then takes the blindfold off, which signifies her stepping out of her ignorance as she becomes aware. This can be compared with the beginning of ours where the girl wakes up and as she walks around she finds out more about herself through the masked figure.

Album Cover

I have listed six of the main conventions of album covers below and analysed whether we have

• Layout/form
   – Front: artist (poster cartoon effect), artist and album name
   – Back - track listing, institutional information
   – Front and back link through colour scheme, font
• Genre signifiers
   - artistic and distinctive
   - quirky and unique
• Visual representation of music
   - Fears, entrapment, extremities
• Branding of the artist
• Institutional identity
   - Staple Records
• Purpose/functions served
   - Portrays artist artistically
   - Identifiable and distinctive image
   - Promotes the artist

Florence And The Machine Album Cover

I would say this album follows all of the above conventions as it is a unique, artistic portrayal of the artist.

Myspace

When creating the artist homepage, which we did as a Myspace page, we looked at the conventions of band/artist homepages, mainly Myspace pages. This is split into four areas:

1. MEDIA LANGUAGE

• There is usually a relationship between the image and the text – The colour of both the image and text match as they are a dark green/blue. They show consistency in this way

2. REPRESENTATION - the iconography represents artist and genre

• Blue and green, grass and trees – a sense of the natural elements, authenticity in terms of the artist and her style of music, very atmospheric and in terms of representing the genre it is different and distinctive, which reflects alternative rock/indie

3. AUDIENCE - satisfied through various conventions

• Satisfied through – upcoming shows, interactivity, can become a friend, can message her, information about her, behind the scenes pictures, can leave comments, can watch the music video, blog entry, pop out player

4. INSTITUTION

• Record label (is independent, matches marketing activity), management, album ‘out now’,
• Marketing activity – specific to independent record labels and so matches the label

Kate Nash Myspace - http://www.myspace.com/katenashmusic

Her Myspace is very interactive as fans can become a friend, send a message and watch videos Kate Nash has picked to represent her.

The background - black and white checks - is simple but also quite retro and original. It reflects her music as original and her lyrics as straightforward and 'real'.

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

Reflections

I did not lead this question. I felt that our discussion successfully answered the question and that we got the main points across as a group. However, I would like to develop some of our points further and add a few extra points, which we did not get the chance to discuss.

Additional Points

Music Video
Our main product, the music video for Evie's new single 'Eyes on Fire' ties all three products together and I would say most effectively sells Evie as an artist. The video is conceptual and abstract and makes her stand out as unique due to the quirky. This can be seen particularly in the shot where the leaves blow upwards, which is quite surreal and makes the audience feel as if they are in another world. The whole concept with the idea of a masked person representing an aspect of the main girl which she is trying to overcome is quite different and makes it stand out to the audience. In the same way, the disjointed structure of the narrative and in parts the editing
 
Album Cover
The front of the album cover is a very striking image of the artist and again represents her as quirky and different as she is seems to trapped in a box. It can be linked to Alice in Wonderland  and the posterised effect makes it seem surreal and out of this world. The back is a complete contrast to this as it is an Extreme Long Shot in the tunnel, which is a link to the music video. The front and back symbolise fears and this ties in with the theme of the video as she overcomes her fears. The extreme contrast represents the extremities of her character which perhaps can be compared to the dark, mysterious side visible in the video and the more humorous and fun side that is evident on the myspace.
 
Artist Homepage - Myspace
Evie's Myspace allows her fans to interact with Evie in various ways. Fans can become a friend, post a message, read her blog entries, look at behind the scenes pictures of her music video, find out when her upcoming shows are and even The Myspace shows a more friendly and humorous side of Evie that fans can easily relate to as can be seen with the video of the Maths song from School of Rock. In this way, similarities can be drawn with Kate Nash's myspace, which is far less glossy and far more personalised as can be seen in the picture below as soon as you enter the site. The background - black and white checks - is simple and so represents her as 'real' as can be seen in her lyrics and she has posted videos of her friends and very personal blog entries. However La Roux's myspace is far more glossy and represents her more as an artist than as a person with images of her clearly posing in the persona she has created to go with her music. The picture is in gold making her seem royal, majestic and therefore less personal. On our myspace however, Evie's picture is far more natural and she seems relaxed as she plays the guitar making her seem more accessible to fans.
 
Combination
All three products work well together as they are all linked in terms of representing Evie as a brand new alternative rock solo artist who is quirky and different. The album cover and musci video can also be viewed on the Myspace. Each product serves a different purpose. The music video represents Evie as the type of artist she is and the genre her songs are, the album cover promotes and sells her as an artist and also the genre of alternative rock while the myspace effectively shows her in a more personal light with the focus on her personality so fans can feel they know her.
 
Kate Nash's Myspace - http://www.myspace.com/katenashmusic
 

 












La Roux's Myspace - http://www.myspace.com/larouxuk

Florence and the Machine Album Cover

Evaluation Question 3: What have you learnt form your audience feedback?

Reflections

I didn't lead this question but I did chip in. I think that as a group we covered a lot of the main points by identifying our core/primary and secondary audience and discussing the feedback we got. I have some points to add to our answer.

Additional Points

Using the online forum was a really good way of getting feedback from people outside of Latymer, as Latymer students tend to like media that challenges them and forces them to think and so belong to a niche audience.

What have we learnt?

• Our core and secondary audience particularly liked the fire-spinning. This is likely to be becasue it is very striking visually and is an elemnet which makes our video stand out. At the first point where the fire almost explodes upwards this is in time with the beat (0:21) and so this may have been another reason why our audience liked this.

• They also liked the 'irregular' editing in our video and this is likely to be because we edited to the beat.
• One criticism from the online forum was that they did not like the messed up make-up. On reflection, we have overdone this element and so it may have looked too contrived.

• People generally wanted to watch the video again. This is probably because of the layers of meaning that mean that people are likely to notice a few aspects of the video only after watching it a few times.
• On the online forum a particular section of the video that was brought up a few times and this is from 1:39 to 1:43 in the music video where the main girl is sat on a stump in the forest while the masked figure circles her and then they switch places. People thought this part was quite humorous and I agree that it ruins the ambiance created by the rest of the video along with the song, which is more creepy and sinister.

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

Reflections

I did not lead this question. I feel that we explored this question really well but would like to add a few brief points. We have also taken some pictures of the technology we used throughout the process.

Additional Points

Here is a picture of us at our edit suite with some of the technology we used! This includes the camera, editing software, HD tapes and paglights (on the desk).

Group blog

This was a quick and easy way to communicate with the group at both the research and planning stages of the project. It was also efficient as we only had to post on the one group blog and this could then be accessed by the entire group.

High Definition camera and tapes

These were relevant to our production and editing stages of the project. Disadvantages are that processes such as rendering take longer and also the tapes are a lot more expensive. But overall it is worth it as the quality is much higher and this helps our music video look more professional.

Software Motion on the Mac

Although we did not use this we were considering using an effect at 2:03 when the masked figure blows glitter from her hand. We were going to replace the glitter with fire or smoke but in the end after experimenting decided not to as the effect did not look right on the shot and it was tricky trying to make it work. So, although this software has the advantage of letting us be more creative with amazing effects it also be quite complicated to work with.

Online Forum

This was really useful in gaining feedback in the evaluation stage of our project. It is easily accessible online and we managed to widen our audience feedback which helped us evaluate our music video greatly.