Finished Poster

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

The music video our group have made attempts to express an 'edgier' look for the song with our magazine advertisement and CD case working alongside the main product to convey and effective edgy persona for the music video. We have chosen to follow this 'edgy' theme as it is quite conventional alongside the genre we picked, this is because the genre has a reputation for its outspoken loud nature and this is why it will appeal in teens(14-18 target audience). By making the CD case/ magazine advertisement look more "edgy"we are able to sell a product appealing to the chosen consumers by catching their eyes with strong colours and effects.

All three products combined the dark edgy theme in their own signature way. The magazine advertisement and CD case connect together partially as some of the imagery has been used on both items. This is to show that the products are in relation with each other. Also as the magazine advertisement is a prime marketing strategy for CD distributors to get the CD out to the consumers and effectively sell it we decided the CD cover has to be in some form recognisable with the advertisement so we used the same bold font for the bands name; 'Paramore'. This is a marketing strategy as when a consumer see's an advertisement appealing to them and they go to a music store such as HMV, they'll know which CD they want and remembering such bold font is easy.

We included the edgy rock theme in our music video by giving the main character 'attitude' which we made sure was put across in her performance. We did this to steer away from the cliche "good girl" image for pop artists.

The magazine advert features the main singer Beth singing so the consumer can recognise the artist. She's had the opacity of the layer on photoshop lowered for her to seep in the background which is of a old style newspaper as we're going for an eroded look. I wanted to include printed birds with eroded textures on them to make it look worn and play on the edgy theme so I added a flock of birds, an owl and a bird which I feel worked for the advertisement. The birds would represent freedom and spirit.

This is effective in gained interest in our targeted audience as it is something that would appeal and catch their eyes. At first the colour theme was quite bland and a dirty low tone orange look but after we created that look we felt that it didn't look as appealing to the audience so we induced an added neon pink theme which brings the poster out even more to catch the consumers eye.

The CD case based itself around this one photograph inside the abandoned Barnes Hospital where the main focus in the picture is the chair. I used the same photograph in each CD cover slide to keep in repetition but I changed the effects so it looked different every time to show variety or else it would have been bland. On the CD cover we have made sure the band name can be seen instantly when it catches the consumers eye by making it bold. We kept to the pink theme again to have continuity and show links with the advertisement.

Overall the combination of the music video, and additional CD cover and magazine advertisement is effective in complimenting each other by playing on the same themes but adding their own style to it whilst constantly thinking of the target audience. The eroded edgy theme plays fits in with the genre style of the music and is an appealing way to target our chosen market.

Shot List

This is a list of the shot types we used throughout our music video:

High angle
Extreme close up
Medium shot
Close up
Long shot
Extreme long shot
Low angle
Point of view shot
Medium close up

Detailed Analysis of Our Music Video

Our video opens up with an abstract view of the buildings and grey sky from the top of a car park. This immediately sets the theme of the video which is dark and reflects the feeling of complicated relationships with the abstract shot. We used a fade in fade out transition to show it as an introduction to the video.

The next shot is of Beth’s foot stepping into a puddle, at the same time the song kicks in; this is showing her feelings of anger and frustration from the start of the video as she is stomping around. It then cuts to Beth lip syncing on the top of the car park, this is consistent with the location that opens the video.

We then added some shots of Beth sat on a bench and hiding behind a tree, making eye contact with the camera. This shows her vulnerability early on in the song, and also reflects the lyrics that back this up, “makes no sense at all”. We repeated the medium shot of Beth hiding behind the tree one after the other, to add to the abstract view and represent how her feelings and vulnerability have been going on for a long time.

We tried to emphasise the word “truth” from the song by showing the word being written sped up. We felt this would have a greater effect on the audience as it is something different that you don’t often see in music videos, and it draws more attention to the word which plays a big part in the lyrics of the song, as the person she is singing about isn’t true to their feelings.

We included some extreme close ups of Beth’s eye when the lyric “you little spies” was playing. This was to show the feeling of being watched as eyes are a good representation of spies.

We used some contrasting shots for the bridge of the song, for example the song starts to quiet down and whispers “crush” repeatedly and slowly, so for this we used an extreme close up of Beth’s mouth whispering the word. However the word starts to get repeated faster, so for this part of the video we then inserted various shots and sped them up to reflect the speeding up of the repetition. We added shots of Beth running away, the extreme close up of her eye and her looking behind her, which adds tension and contrasts with the start of the bridge which was very slow. This also helps it build up to the chorus.

In the part of the video where Beth is sitting alone at a table, we added a green screen background of the outside of a restaurant. This is first shown in the part of the song where the lyrics are “that never happens, I guess I’m dreaming again”. Due to the image being of the outside of a restaurant and Beth sitting outside it on a table it is reflecting the lyrics, showing how she is dreaming about wanting to go on a date with the boy she is singing about. We were not aiming for this look of it being a dream, but decided it fitted in well with the abstract feel of shots at the start of the video, so decided to keep it in order to keep the consistency.

We filmed some high angle shots of Beth singing on a Church balcony. This was to represent the feeling of spies and how she feels the boy that she likes is being watched, so has to be careful about how he acts with her. The high angle shot shows how she now feels she is in control of him and the situation, almost as if she is now one of the spies watching over him, like playing God.

As the song comes to a close we used shots of Beth dancing behind an animation of fireworks. This was to show how she has progressed in comparison to how she was portrayed at the start of the video, for example hiding behind a tree and looking behind her nervously. The animation of fireworks was to sow the explosion of her feelings and how she is breaking free almost from her frustrated feelings.

The last shot in the video is a pan shot following her stood still, this is a comparison to the previous shots of Beth running away from the camera, it is showing how her confidence has grown as now she is standing bravely in front of it and the role is reversed. The camera is used in this way to almost represent Beth’s feelings, showing how in the beginning she was fearful of them, so running way and hiding from them, but by the end of the song she is confronting them and is no longer in fear. We felt this was a good contrast between the start and the end of the video, as it shows how she has grown throughout the song.

Cotsume Analysis

This is the main feature costume for our music video. I wore these pieces of clothing because the emotions of the song are sadness, anger and frustration. The darkness of the clothing represents this as it makes the character feel alone and vulnerable. Also the clothing fits within the genre as it is a post-punk song, the converse trainers, with tights, shorts and a top embody this type of style. This would help target our wanted audience as it is seen as the 'emo' trend that our targeted audience would wear.

Evaluation

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

We asked some classmates a few questions about what they thought about our music video, and what they liked and disliked. Here is their feedback:









Some of the negatives from the feedback were that the lip syncing could have been a bit more in time with the music, so we changed this slightly in order to improve it.

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

In the Research and Planning stages of our media work we used the Apple Macs to do some research on different styles of music videos. We came up with four initial ideas for songs we were intending to use for our music video. These were: End Credits by Chase & Status, Here in your arms by HelloGoodbye, Liquid Lives by Hadouken! And Crush Crush Crush by Paramore. We chose to use Crush Crush Crush by Paramore and in our planning we found two videos of a similar genre on YouTube and we wrote out a detailed analysis of each one. We also used YouTube, Google and Muzu.tv to find images we could use within our detailed analysis in order to make our blog look more interesting rather than a huge block of text. We used blogspot.com to ensure we could keep track of our progress and what we were doing and we found it very easy to use.

During the construction of our media product we used a digital camera, a video camera and also a green screen room. We used the video camera to film our main product and we used this in college and also in our exterior locations. We used the camera for a variety of shots ranging from long shots to close up shots and we used it to film our main character Beth when she was moving around and also when she was simply standing still. We also used a digital camera in order to get photographs of our locations, our main character, props and costumes and also some shots of the green screen room. We took photos of the green screen room for us to put up onto the blog to show what type of equipment we were using in the production stages of our work. Along with the camera we used a tripod as we found that this was the best way to get smooth, still shots with no shaking in them. We did use some hand held shots in our video but we found using the tripod was the best.




We used the green screen room to create the image of a busy restaurant as well as an unusual background to go behind Beth singing and dancing. The green screen room we used has got 3 cameras and we used each one for a different shot. This meant that we were actually doing some editing during the filming process rather than doing all the editing after the production stages. During the filming in the green screen room each of us had a different role, one of us was in charge of music, another of us was in charge of the cameras using a big box of buttons and switches and then Beth was involved in the shot so that was her role. We found the green screen equipment very easy to use and we believe it added an interesting element to our product.

During the editing process of our production we used Final Cut pro which is a professional non-linear editing software. Using this software meant that we had the ability to easily move around the different shots we had once we had added the track to the timeline. We were able to change the speed of the shots and add transitions and effects to our video in order to make it look as professional as we possibly could.

We used photo shop to create the CD cover and poster to go with our music video. It was used to edit photographs of the main character in our video and to create a style completely different to any CD cover we have seen before.

Evaluation

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

We had four initial ideas when deciding which song to use for our music video. They were; Chase & Status – End Credits
Hadouken – Liquid Lives
Hellogoodbye – Here in Your Arms
Paramore – Crushcrushcrush

We were inspired by certain elements of these videos, as they all have the same target audience as the song we finally chose, which was Paramore, Crushcrushcrush. We felt we could use certain techniques from each video and merge them with our own ideas to make the final product unique, yet fit in with the same genre and style of video as our initial ideas.

One specific element we liked from the Chase & Status video was the hand held camera following people running. This adds the effect of someone being chased, rather than running towards something, through the use of a point of view shot and hand held filming. We felt this added tension to the video as it suggests there is something to run from and gives the viewer a sense of involvement, as if they are running away with them.

After filming this hand held shot for our own video, we decided to speed it up when editing, and add it to a montage of other sped up shots that we had filmed, for example mid shots of Beth when she was sat on a bench and walking round the car park, in order for it to fit in with the fast pace of the song and give an even more tense effect. We made the shots faster by changing the percentage of speed on final cut pro, the percentage we used was 500.

We liked how the pace of the video reflects the pace of the song for the Hellogoodbye track, for example when the song slows down so does the video, and the same for when the song gets faster. We tried to bring this into our own music video, by using slow motion on a long shot of Beth dancing in front of the green screen, as the song slows down towards the end, then picks up the pace again. This also occurs in the original Paramore video.

We wanted to make our music video unique to our group, but still include elements of a typical music video for its pop/rock genre and target audience. To do this we included a performance of Beth lip syncing and dancing to the song, as it is a popular shot to have in a music video and we wanted it to fit in with the style of Paramore videos. We tried to keep it unique to our group by adding things like the writing of the word ‘truth’ and a fast montage of shots.