Final thoughts

To what extent did media language contribute to and help you evaluate one of your media productions ?
For my piece we put forward a message of curiosity, mystery and desperation. We achieved these feelings by using the five elements of media language listed as follows, Camera (shot, angle, movement and position and lighting, Editing, Sound, Mise-en-scene and special effects. My production was a pop video of the song Sweet Disposition by an artist called The Temper Trap. The meaning of the song is about dreams and holding on to whatever you have. The Band we portrayed through costume and looks we casted a band to give a feel of rebellion, innocence, vulnerability ect. This also applies to the lead singer as he portrayed the message well and was a photogenic character.
Media language was vital in creating my preferred meaning in the following ways. Types of shot, we took a series of different shots in order to create atmospheric feelings and emotion between the audience and the characters and performers. Close ups and extreme close ups were used to create a sense of intimacy wither between the narrative characters with the band and both performance and narrative elements with the audience, for example, Chloe the girl who acts in the narrative is very photogenic and we took close ups of her face investigating the light bulbs in order to create a bond with the audience (especially male). Another example would be the shots of the light bulbs and wide shots of Chloe in the woods along with the band, these wide shots I feel create a mysterious atmospheric feel, the shots that follow the rule of thirds bond the band together and throughout the filming process we tried to get as much variation as possible in order to then edit the shots according to other elements of film-making (leading the eye for example). A close up of the lead sing that is the first shot of any member of narrative or performance was used as our master shot, this is the shot that we returned to in order to break up any action and provided a safety net but this was also a good shot to immediately link the character to the audience. The tracking shots towards the end of the production with the blinders created a good atmosphere following the build up to the chorus and allow the audience to follow smoothly unpredictable action, these shots are key as they play an important role in the narrative as they allow the audience to feel the emotions and understand the portrayed feeling of the girl not being noticed by the band, theses shots also gel the narrative with the performance element. At the same point in the song we wanted to allow the audience to see the general action of the product for this we used mid-shots so we could create closeness without intimacy. With regard to angle, we shot both the our band and our narrative character from high and low angles to emphasize size of the band when they are in the box and when she is looking inside, and also helplessness on the final shot of the piece for dramatic effect. We also shot a POV or point of view shot so that the viewer could see that the character had noticed the box in the woods.
In editing we used continuity editing and cut to the beat of the music which follows the main convention of film-making with music videos. Long takes were used intensely in our product, during the editing stage we lingered on certain shots and pieces of action so that the audience could relate and take in what was going on in the shot.
In the Mise-en-scene our studio layout was designed in order to create a dark atmosphere and replicate the inside of the box, the woods location was also chosen and lit with redheads so that the performance and narrative would differentiate from each other but be strongly linked at the same time. The costume we decided on for the narrative character was picked to create a feeling of her in a dream world, the bands costume was chosen to link them with each other and have a plain feel as to not support any expectations that the audience can put to so that a wider audience could relate to them.
We tried to keep the lighting as dark as possible so that the blinders, light bulbs and redheads could create a feeling of energy, vulnerability and not only allow the light bulbs to be seen clearly but also to keep the epic finish with the blinders as atmospheric as possible. In the special effects we used after effects to make the light bulbs light up in the studio as we were unable to get electricity to them on the day of filming, we also used a blue screen to project the woods still which was the back and sides of the box in the performance element.
Overall I can conclude that media language was fundamental in the production of our pop-video.

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

My 2010 A2 Pop-video Product, Sweet Disposition.

Blog task 1, In what ways do your media products use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Throughout our product it is clear from these images that were taken directly from our piece that in making our pop video we challenged and confronted some of the conventions of music videos.

This image above is taken from the opening to our music video which shows a continuous show of light bulbs in the woods location, the lights set the audience up for narrative and follow the music convention of sharp and fast cutting with the music until we see our lead singer.

Our lead singer who is shown above here is an important part of the band in terms of star image and portraying a message, trying to keep him positioned central but always slightly to the left of the shot. The message that is being put over by the singer is humble and a state of vulnerability and wisdom. By all the band wearing the same clothing they link together as a unit apposed to individuals , this is common in the vast majority of group music videos, in this image we find the singer placed firmly on the left of the shot to connect with the audience in a positive way, we also see the bass guitarist over his shoulder and a light bulb in the top left of the shot , this was so that we could link the narrative and performance together subtlety before we physically link them with the wandering girl entering their world.

In this image we have applied the rule of thirds, a common convention of music videos that we felt was vital for our production. We placed our musicians within the XY axis in positions that we felt portrayed their individual input of representation in the band , for example , the bass player we felt was the rebellious and more ominous member of the band so we placed him on the right hand side of every shot. The lead singer we felt portrayed knowledge of life and the wisdom of the band and so we placed him central and applied strong light to him throughout. Our drummer represented the foundation of the band, placing him central left with the guitarist who we thought charmed the audience.

For our character who features in the narrative we chose a girl who we thought fitted our needs perfect we wanted someone not only highly photogenic but also represents confusion, desperation, curiosity, desire to rebel and vulnerability, as to connect her with our audiences and portray her as the protagonist we always placed her entering from the left of the frame or lingering on the left of the frame, we light our protagonist throughout with warm colours oranges apposed to blues and greens as we did with the lead singer, this not only subliminally connects them but also relates a feel of love and compassion to the viewer , this we felt would create the right bond with the audience and thus boost the popularity.

The image shown above is a still taken from the moment when the narrative message becomes apparent. We have the female character enter from the left as she has done throughout the production, in almost all shots the female character enters from the left. this portrays her as the protagonist and in this particular moment the band members become a dream and the girl is left on her own, this follows many common generic conventions of pop music videos such as a possible narrative structure, the flexibility to disregard realism, the use of special effects, carefully constructed mis en scene appropriate to the content and tone of the track ect.

This image shows our wide and extensive use of shot types, camera angles and movement, this shot gives the audience a good understanding of what is going on and we used special effects to portray the band to be inside the box once opened, once again following a main generic convention of pop music videos by being flexible to disregard realism.

This is the layout and imagry used for our magazine advert, the advert clearly shows the bands faces allowing the band to be recognised and create a relationship with the reader, this is also the same image used for the album front cover meaning that again a connection will be made between the advert and the product. The lighting and setting creates the same atmosphere and mystery that is present in the video.

This image was used as the back cover of our digipak back cover for our album, the image strongly creates an atmosphere with the use of lighting and placement we were able to show the band facing away from the audience creating a sense of rebellion or interest.

Blog task 2 ,How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts ?

Richard dyer says that there are two paradoxes. Firstly the star must be simultaneously ordinary and extraordinary for the consumer, and secondly the star must be simultaneously present and absent for the consumer.Some common values of stardom include youthfulness, rebellion, sexual magnetism, an anti-authoritarian attitude, originality, creativity/talent, aggression/anger, a disregard for social values relating to drugs, sex and polite behaviour, conspicuous consumption, of sex, drugs and material goods and success against the odds. Our target audience’s age group range is the 16-25 year olds.

Our band is a new and upcoming group and appear to be normal to the target audience. Our bands costume consists of wearing mainly all black, typically showing a connection between each other and also giving a feel of rebellion and mystery.

The style of our band is youthful, unique, creative, and mysterious. Dyer has written extensively about the role of stars in film, TV and music. Dyer states that, “irrespective of the medium, stars have some key features in common: A star is an image, not a real person, that is constructed (as any other aspect of fiction is) out of a range of materials (eg, advertising, magazines etc as well as films and music). My group and I have created three products to show our bands star image in the form of a pop video, a magazine advert and a digipak.

The term ‘Star’ refers to the semi-mythological set of meanings constructed around music performers in order to sell the performer to an audience. Different stars appeal to different audiences for example a star with values such as rebellion, conspicuous consumption of sex, drugs and material goods and a disregard for social values would be an artist named Amy Winehouse as shown below:

Our digipak consisted of an album layout (front/back including internal front/back) and a magazine advert. The front of our album cover fits the theme/atmospheric that we created both our poster and throughout our music video. We chose this photograph as it gives the audience relation to the band as they are a new group it was important to show there faces to get a sense of recognition. This photo also is much like the one we used for our magazine advert this allows the audience again to connect the magazine advert with the album. This photo emphasises the bands sense of mystery, especially as the blinders mean you cant see them very clearly, this creates a sense of curiosity with them.

The back page of our album cover has similar implications of the sense of youth and mystery, this photo not only connects with the front cover as it is a opposite view but relates with Richard Dyers paradox that a star must be simultaneously present and absent to the consumer as mentioned before. This image does show the band yet we only see their backs creating absenteeism and possible rebellion.

Although our overall reflects the feelings that we created in our video I feel that the inside cover truly creates a sense of atmosphere, mystery and an abnormal feel. The photos also create a dreamlike or fairytale image of the band which makes them unique or extraordinary. During our production we collected shots of the band to appear normal to connect with the audience and to fix with Dyer’s paradox that a star must be simultaneously ordinary and extraordinary to the consumer.

Our magazine advert has to fit with the band, the album and the product, so we chose this photograph and layout to connect all these together. This photo was shot on set and whilst the band is still in costume and using the same lighting that we used for the filming we created a similar atmosphere of mystery and rebellion.

In our third product, the shoot, we tried to show that the band were easy to relate to a wide audience, this is as they are a good looking, original and fairly normal group of people that are easily to relate to, but they still have the feel of mystery and rebellion due to there location and costume. The shots we took create an connection between not only the band and the audience but the band with the narrative and its character which has a dreamlike feel to it as we are taken on the girls journey of following the lights through the woods like a fairytale.

Our product can be viewed at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HjJl7YDzRvs

An artist I feel is similar to our band is one names White Lies , this group have a similar star image and feel in there music , rebellion, mystery, originality, extraordinary.

Blog task 3 What did you learn from your audience feedback ?

What I learnt from my audience feedback.

Having collected a variety of feedback for our pop video and ancillary products from members of the target audience, and from other audience demographics via You Tube, a focus group questionnaire and other sources I looked to answer this question.

In the early stages of producing our piece we identified who we were aiming at in terms of our audience. My group and I came to the conclusion of targeting demographics B, C and D. The demographics we targeted were chosen as they match the audience that would not just take a liking to this genre of music but also understand and accept the message we portrayed in the piece. Within these demographics we aimed at an age group of mixed-gender 17-25 year-olds as this age group was whom we targeted when discussing, planning and producing our star image towards this large music market. The target audience we aiming our product at was a multinational one, however sales and feedback and where the product would be most popular would be from a western market, the education of this audience would be similar to the higher end of the jictar demographics A, B, C and D (well-fairly well educated with good aspirations and high/fairly high expectations).

The audience of our product was based mainly around the website ‘YouTube’, after uploading our product we obtained constructive feedback. With over 500 views we received comments that reflected what we had planned to achieve within our audience, for example a comment was made by caz2435 who mentions on her profile that she is a female, is 19 years old and attends 6th form college, this shows that our preferred audience age and demographic was correct, in-fact 100% of our comments were made by viewers between the age of 17- 21 and 83% of our comments were made by students attending A level exams in school. Some comments made include:
‘Great representation of the band. Fits the music really well.’
‘the effects from when she goes in to the box are fantastic, really beautiful. Well done, this is an amazing piece of A level work’
‘I love this song and this video, fits it perfectly,
amazing job well done!’

We also obtained some criticism from one viewer who stated that the video was ‘a little repetitive at times’, however another viewer also stated that there were ‘many different shots to keep it interesting’. We also showed our product to a focus group of nine 17-18 year olds (5 male and 4 female), in which we collected some feedback through a discussion and a questionnaire. These questions are listed below with the answers discussed in our focus group:
1. What did you like about it?
‘The way that there were lights leading the girl to the woods – I think showing her curiosity meant that I wanted her to find what she was looking for and felt like a dream.’

2. What didn’t you like about it?
‘When she opened the box and went inside you couldn’t see how she got in’
3. What did you think about the transition of the girl from the woods to the box?
‘Understood that she went into their world but there was nothing showing how she got in there.’

4. Can you think of another way in which we could have done it?
‘Something like Alice in wonderland, drink something? Or fall in, or stepped in.’

5. What image do you think the band portrays?
‘They look like Cool guys. Good looking and Emit sex appeal, but also a sense of purity and mystery.’

6. Does the narrative make sense? And if so what do you think it means?
‘Yes it’s a song about having a dream and the narrative tells this well, you can see that the girl is follows the lights maybe because she is unhappy and is looking for something better? Like an escape? but finds out people aren’t real or aren’t accepting her.’

7. Do you think our chosen band worked well? … Why?
‘Yes they looked similar especially hairstyle which is good –the lead singer was interesting to look at because he’s quite photogenic,he really works. The girl you used is also very photogenic and good to watch, the boys have got an urban dumb look not classically good looking but make you want to keep watching.’

8. Do you think it’s too repetitive?
‘No not really because you wanted to find out where she was going, felt really captivated.’

9. Is there any underlying meaning that you got out of this video?
‘She’s pretty but even when she’s in the world everyone’s ignoring her. I suppose keep following your dreams? Overall enjoyed it.’

10. What does it tell you about gender?
‘You get a feel of romance. Women can’t get what they want – looking for love but can’t get it. No happy ending for women. The girls being blanked by guys so men overpowering to girls.’

After showing the group our product and asking these questions we receivedusefulresponses and comments on the points we wanted to address. Overall the full focus group enjoyed our video, Millie (18 years old) said “I loved it, was very atmospheric”, with regards to the message we were trying to portray five of the females and two of the boys understood exactly what we wrote in our narrative. Oscar (19 years old) said in response to question six ‘I think the narrative is simple but effective, a girl looking for an escape entering a dream world and following the trail of lights to the band but still not finding what she was looking for?” this is exactly what we based the narrative of our product is about. Tessa an inelegant student taking media studies in upper sixth form (17 years old) said, “ I understand the narrative well but I think the transition from outside in the woods to inside the world in the box with the band was not quite clear enough, I can see that she enters there world and get the rest of the narrative but I think a shot of entering the box would have added to the video.” These responses from the questionnaire asked to our group and then discussed were positive as they reflected the points we wanted to address, firstly we established that a very large proportion of viewers enjoyed the video and understood the message, the message we were putting forward in the narrative and performance was for never to give up on your dreams and keep chasing them forever, this was accepted by seven of the focus group and two of the group rejected the concept. The performance of our video was meant to be as atmospheric as possible and the lighting and effects used in the performance element of the product made this possible and 100% of our focus group found the video to have an ‘mystical atmosphere’. Our audience also had a positive reaction to the band and the star image. Within our focus group and comments on Youtube a the comments made on their star image was good, we portrayed our band to have youthfulness, rebellion, sexual magnetism, to be mystical and have a streak of innocence. This was recognised by our audience and as planned was accepted by our target audience. If we were to redo any part of our product and try to improve it in any way, with response and information taken from our audience the only thing we would change would be the transition from the woods inside the box. Having discussed this in pre-production we concluded not to have a shot of our character entering the box at the risk of it looking to unrealistic, however, the audiences response to the lack of this element in our piece was that it needed to be included. This opinion was made mainly by media studies students, my peers, parents, family and friends however did not think this was necessary.

The uses and gratifications model derives from research carried out in the 1950’s- the personal influence study by Lazarfeld, Blumler and Katz. The theory is that audiences are far from passive in their approach to the media, rather they actively choose and consume the media to satisfy particular needs and gratifications which they exhibit. This theory can be applied to our pop-video, Diversion- a form of escape or emotional release from everyday pressures, diversion is accepted by the audience watching our video as we our character a mysterious, attractive girl wandering through the woods searching for an escape with the driving music setting the ambience, this emotion is shown through the character and combined with a series of close ups creates a sense of intimacy with the audience and allows them to relate to the character. One member of our focus group said ‘you get the emotion and narrative from the girl and the atmosphere of the performance, you want to keep watching to see what happens to her’. Personal identity within Uses and gratifications is the ability to compare one’s life with the characters and situations within the media, and so explore personal problems and perspectives. Personal identity is also present in our piece through both the band and the character in the woods. The male members of our focus group and viewers on youtube reacted to the band through personal identity, not only does the girl appeal to them as she is attractive and the male audience is drawn to her but also aspire to be like and follow the example of the members of the band.

The females of our audience are drawn to the female character as they are drawn to follow her to and find out what happens as they relate easier than males to the situation that she shows to be in. Surveillance is a supply of information about what is going on in the world. Surveillance is present in our audience because we as human beings inquire and are curious, our element of mystery captivates the audience and compels them to keep watching.

Stuart Halls theory of encoding and decoding could also be applied to our pop-video. Hall calls his theory social mapping. In his writings he debates that media producers have to meet the social maps that individuals and groups of individuals make up. People think of themselves as British, male or female, certain age or religion, certain values and beliefs. Our pop video takes the interests and qualities that certain people react to and use them to draw in an audience, for example, the band and female character in our product grasp the audiences attention as they can relate to the looks and attractions of the characters as looks and sexual magnetism is a concern of our target audience. The audience are also able to make up their own minds on why the female character is trying to escape with things in their lives. This follows Hall’s social map theory:

Hall’s Encoding and decoding theory is how audiences react to media products. An accepted preferred meaning means that the audience have taken in the media product and accepted it and understood it. This is the goal the producing institutions. Negotiated meaning is when the audience does not understand the meaning and create their own. Oppositional interpretation is when the audience does not agree with it and reject the principles of it despite understanding it. Therefore if for example a film is released about a war between China and America, if this products message is that the Chinese are bad as their preferred meaning, the Chinese audience will have an oppositional interpretation however the majority of the American audience will most likely take a preferred or negotiated reading.
With our pop video our preferred meaning was mostly accepted as we established in our focus group seven of the nine we were questioning understood and accepted the meaning.
“you can see that the girl is follows the lights maybe because she is unhappy and is looking for something better? Like an escape? but finds out people aren’t real or aren’t accepting her.”