Evaluation Question 1 (Paolo Pellegrinelli)
In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
For our A2 media project, we produced a music video for the song “Radioactive” by the indie rock band Imagine Dragons. Throughout this production we have both developed and challenged conventions typical of music videos within the indie rock genre in order to create an original music video.
Indie music traditionally attempts to differentiate itself from the more manufactured and popularised image of pop. In order to understand what would be considered a conventional indie rock video we researched other bands in the indie rock genre similar to Imagine Dragons such as Bastille. We focused on the representation of the band and found that the conventional appearance of the bands within the indie rock genre would be unmanufactured and the band would be shown living an unglamorous lifestyle in their music videos. This is partly due to the genre's focus on anti-escapist reality with the artist representing an authentic musician rather than a figure of fantasy or an idealised star persona. For example, in the Bastille – Pompeii music video the lead singer was shown to be living in a small apartment with a mattress on the floor showing that the band living an unglamorous lifestyle. Similar to Bastille – Pompeii we represented our band members to show them living an unspectacular lifestyle by showing the band members sleeping in sleeping bags in a forest. We represented the band living this lifestyle so that the band will be unglamourised, not necessarily because we want our audience to identify with the band but because we wanted to be different to the pop culture(of which many artists are glamourised within the genre)which is a common theme in the indie genre. This also ensured that there was no distraction from the primary focus of the group's musical ability. We wanted to make it clear that they were there because of their talent and not their star image. We also had the band perform on top of an abandoned building (to amplify the post-apocalyptic setting) which was used as a small stage which is used by many bands within the indie genre. The post apocalyptic setting could be said to be escapist as it often features in the action adventure film but we felt that its bleak mise-en-scene and mood were appropriate with our attempt at more realistic representations. It has also been features as part of the band's star iconography in the 'It's Time' Video.
We used the typical image of an indie rock band from the genre to create the costumes which were simplistic and common within the indie rock genre. The costumes consisted of simplistic grey jogging bottoms with a grey hoodie, the cold colours that the band was wearing featured in many music videos within the genre such as “when the sun goes down” by the Arctic Monkeys. However we feel that we have challenged some features of the indie rock genre by including a fight scene as very few music videos within the genre include dramatic fight scenes like ours in which the band members encounter another survivor who shoots one of the band members for his bag. This was designed an an homage to the post apocalyptic genre which often features suspenseful and intense confrontations between survivors, as in the Mad Max films, The Road and The Book of Eli.
Our research also included the analysis of post-production techniques used in music videos within the genre. We found that Imagine Dragons used a grey-scale like colour filter which added to the post-apocalyptic setting in the “It’s Time” music video. We developed this post-production technique by using a colour filter however changing the colour to a brown based filter which worked effectively in creating a post-apocalyptic atmosphere. An example of a film that used the brown based colour filter effectively was The Book Of Eli which was also a post-apocalyptic film as well as the seminal Mad Max films . Imagine Dragon's It's Time music video also featured a post-apocalyptic setting which included broken buildings and torn flags which we attempted to recreate in the desolate forest with the abandoned building to reinforce the post-apocalyptic atmosphere.Also, we noticed that in indie rock music videos the band received the majority of screen time with many of the shots close ups of the artist’s faces, which was used to create a star image. This relates to Andrew Goodwin's theory that a music artist is used a selling tool to enable the artist to sell more albums which is why many pop videos feature close ups of the artist to create a star image.We used this in our music video as there were many shots of the band performing which included close ups of the band members face as we attempted to create our own star image.
The conventional editing style in the indie rock genre involved cross-cutting between the narrative of the music video and the performance of the band, a style in which we incorporated into our music video where there is the band performing on top of the abandoned building and we follow the narrative of the two band members throughout the video which we felt created a fast editing pace and tension during the music video. Post-production effects are also commonly used in the indie rock genre however we only incorporated a few into our music video, the colour filter as well as a gun flash during the fight scene to make the scene more believable.
Although, our music video is also an action/post-apocalyptic themed one, which we implemented in our video through miss en scene, editing and camerawork. For example, our music video is set in a forest which is a conventional post-apocalyptic setting which was deserted which added to the post-apocalyptic theme. Also, our music video has a fast tempo which makes the editing pace fast also, this is very common theme in action and post-apocalyptic films to create tension in the audience. Finally, camerawork was an important part of our video to represent the action especially in the fight scene. During the fight scene there were high angle shots of the band members to show their vulnerability before one gets murdered by the antagonist. Also, during the fight scene camerawork was important to create tension which we did by showing the antagonist loading his gun and aiming it at the band members
For our A2 media project, we produced a music video for the song “Radioactive” by the indie rock band Imagine Dragons. Throughout this production we have both developed and challenged conventions typical of music videos within the indie rock genre in order to create an original music video.
Indie music traditionally attempts to differentiate itself from the more manufactured and popularised image of pop. In order to understand what would be considered a conventional indie rock video we researched other bands in the indie rock genre similar to Imagine Dragons such as Bastille. We focused on the representation of the band and found that the conventional appearance of the bands within the indie rock genre would be unmanufactured and the band would be shown living an unglamorous lifestyle in their music videos. This is partly due to the genre's focus on anti-escapist reality with the artist representing an authentic musician rather than a figure of fantasy or an idealised star persona. For example, in the Bastille – Pompeii music video the lead singer was shown to be living in a small apartment with a mattress on the floor showing that the band living an unglamorous lifestyle. Similar to Bastille – Pompeii we represented our band members to show them living an unspectacular lifestyle by showing the band members sleeping in sleeping bags in a forest. We represented the band living this lifestyle so that the band will be unglamourised, not necessarily because we want our audience to identify with the band but because we wanted to be different to the pop culture(of which many artists are glamourised within the genre)which is a common theme in the indie genre. This also ensured that there was no distraction from the primary focus of the group's musical ability. We wanted to make it clear that they were there because of their talent and not their star image. We also had the band perform on top of an abandoned building (to amplify the post-apocalyptic setting) which was used as a small stage which is used by many bands within the indie genre. The post apocalyptic setting could be said to be escapist as it often features in the action adventure film but we felt that its bleak mise-en-scene and mood were appropriate with our attempt at more realistic representations. It has also been features as part of the band's star iconography in the 'It's Time' Video.
We used the typical image of an indie rock band from the genre to create the costumes which were simplistic and common within the indie rock genre. The costumes consisted of simplistic grey jogging bottoms with a grey hoodie, the cold colours that the band was wearing featured in many music videos within the genre such as “when the sun goes down” by the Arctic Monkeys. However we feel that we have challenged some features of the indie rock genre by including a fight scene as very few music videos within the genre include dramatic fight scenes like ours in which the band members encounter another survivor who shoots one of the band members for his bag. This was designed an an homage to the post apocalyptic genre which often features suspenseful and intense confrontations between survivors, as in the Mad Max films, The Road and The Book of Eli.
Our research also included the analysis of post-production techniques used in music videos within the genre. We found that Imagine Dragons used a grey-scale like colour filter which added to the post-apocalyptic setting in the “It’s Time” music video. We developed this post-production technique by using a colour filter however changing the colour to a brown based filter which worked effectively in creating a post-apocalyptic atmosphere. An example of a film that used the brown based colour filter effectively was The Book Of Eli which was also a post-apocalyptic film as well as the seminal Mad Max films . Imagine Dragon's It's Time music video also featured a post-apocalyptic setting which included broken buildings and torn flags which we attempted to recreate in the desolate forest with the abandoned building to reinforce the post-apocalyptic atmosphere.Also, we noticed that in indie rock music videos the band received the majority of screen time with many of the shots close ups of the artist’s faces, which was used to create a star image. This relates to Andrew Goodwin's theory that a music artist is used a selling tool to enable the artist to sell more albums which is why many pop videos feature close ups of the artist to create a star image.We used this in our music video as there were many shots of the band performing which included close ups of the band members face as we attempted to create our own star image.
The conventional editing style in the indie rock genre involved cross-cutting between the narrative of the music video and the performance of the band, a style in which we incorporated into our music video where there is the band performing on top of the abandoned building and we follow the narrative of the two band members throughout the video which we felt created a fast editing pace and tension during the music video. Post-production effects are also commonly used in the indie rock genre however we only incorporated a few into our music video, the colour filter as well as a gun flash during the fight scene to make the scene more believable.
Although, our music video is also an action/post-apocalyptic themed one, which we implemented in our video through miss en scene, editing and camerawork. For example, our music video is set in a forest which is a conventional post-apocalyptic setting which was deserted which added to the post-apocalyptic theme. Also, our music video has a fast tempo which makes the editing pace fast also, this is very common theme in action and post-apocalyptic films to create tension in the audience. Finally, camerawork was an important part of our video to represent the action especially in the fight scene. During the fight scene there were high angle shots of the band members to show their vulnerability before one gets murdered by the antagonist. Also, during the fight scene camerawork was important to create tension which we did by showing the antagonist loading his gun and aiming it at the band members
Evaluation Question 2 - Bradley Marchant
How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
For our A2 media project we created our own music video and ancillary texts based from our song Radioactive by Imagine Dragons. We believe we have effectively combined our main media product and our ancillary texts in relation to our chosen bands ideologies and core values through the use of mise-en-scene and other features associated with Imagine Dragons.
For our music video we researched our song “Radioactive” music video through the use of the internet and other forms to find parts of the video that represented Imagine Dragons which would be implemented in our video to share these same values and represent the band correctly. This included a post- apocalyptic theme that was apparent though-out the music video which showed prominently dark colours which is related to the indie rock genre. Indie music usually tries to stay away the orthodox approach to music which tends to stick to the topics of money, cars, women and sex. Indie music is not a real genre but just a general phrase for any independent artists of any style of music. To replicate this in our video we added a tint using Final Cut Express to emphasise to the audience that there was a constant dark theme and was obvious that our video was in a post-apocalyptic setting. We are happy with the result of this and believe using the tint was also relevant to Imagine Dragons indie rock genre because it made the video darker and cold, which describes the genre accurately. Other elements of the music video we wanted to implement into our music video was the costume of the band which was dark greys and blacks which again represents the genre that they are in which is indie-rock. We did this by dressing our two survivors in our video in these colours which stayed in sync with our theme as-well as helping us stay close to Imagine Dragons ideologies.
We wanted our ancillary texts to relate to our music video using the same features that we included from our research from Radioactive music video and various CD covered we have analysed. We wanted to analyze many different CD covers and other forms of text from Imagine Dragons to understand what we would need to produce in our ancillary texts to represent them correctly and include any specific elements from them in our work. Features we learnt from this research included the same font used which was bold and futuristic. This represents how the band want to stand out compared to other artists because of how popular the music business is, and having a diverse font shows how they are keeping up with the music industry which is forever changing to meet the expectations of their fans/consumers. Another feature we learned was the common colour theme used through-out their CD covers which was predominantly black and grey. This represents Imagine Dragons correctly because the Indie-rock genre they are in has connotations to these colours. Also included in our research was that the majority of their CD covers is the multiple band members or a single person is shown looking into the distance to create an enigma, this makes the audience question what's happening and links in well with our post-apocalyptic theme because it relates to tension and suspense, qualities that we added in our music video.
All of these features we learnt from Imagine Dragons convinced us that when producing our ancillary texts we needed to implement them decisively to illustrate our connection to Imagine Dragons and make it evident to the audience the ideologies and values of the band. Using Adobe Photoshop we started this with our front cover for our digipak where we took inspiration from the Imagine Dragons album cover "On Top Of The World" by having our two survivors facing the camera looking into the distance. This was effective because it related to our band as it connotes mystery and obscurity which links in with our post-apocalyptic theme. We also used a similar font with black and grey colours that is regularly used by Imagine Dragons for our digipak and is briefly introduced in our music video. This was pleasing because with the use of different effects we added made our headings stand out more and also helped made our cover look more appealing and professional which related to Imagine Dragons covers that we had researched.
Overall, our group is happy how both our music video and ancillary texts complement each other in the way that we have represented our band Imagine Dragons core beliefs, traditions and ideologies. This was vital to understand what our bands meaning was so that we could portray them
appropriately through our work and create a product that is professional which meets the needs of growing audience.
For our A2 media project we created our own music video and ancillary texts based from our song Radioactive by Imagine Dragons. We believe we have effectively combined our main media product and our ancillary texts in relation to our chosen bands ideologies and core values through the use of mise-en-scene and other features associated with Imagine Dragons.
For our music video we researched our song “Radioactive” music video through the use of the internet and other forms to find parts of the video that represented Imagine Dragons which would be implemented in our video to share these same values and represent the band correctly. This included a post- apocalyptic theme that was apparent though-out the music video which showed prominently dark colours which is related to the indie rock genre. Indie music usually tries to stay away the orthodox approach to music which tends to stick to the topics of money, cars, women and sex. Indie music is not a real genre but just a general phrase for any independent artists of any style of music. To replicate this in our video we added a tint using Final Cut Express to emphasise to the audience that there was a constant dark theme and was obvious that our video was in a post-apocalyptic setting. We are happy with the result of this and believe using the tint was also relevant to Imagine Dragons indie rock genre because it made the video darker and cold, which describes the genre accurately. Other elements of the music video we wanted to implement into our music video was the costume of the band which was dark greys and blacks which again represents the genre that they are in which is indie-rock. We did this by dressing our two survivors in our video in these colours which stayed in sync with our theme as-well as helping us stay close to Imagine Dragons ideologies.
We wanted our ancillary texts to relate to our music video using the same features that we included from our research from Radioactive music video and various CD covered we have analysed. We wanted to analyze many different CD covers and other forms of text from Imagine Dragons to understand what we would need to produce in our ancillary texts to represent them correctly and include any specific elements from them in our work. Features we learnt from this research included the same font used which was bold and futuristic. This represents how the band want to stand out compared to other artists because of how popular the music business is, and having a diverse font shows how they are keeping up with the music industry which is forever changing to meet the expectations of their fans/consumers. Another feature we learned was the common colour theme used through-out their CD covers which was predominantly black and grey. This represents Imagine Dragons correctly because the Indie-rock genre they are in has connotations to these colours. Also included in our research was that the majority of their CD covers is the multiple band members or a single person is shown looking into the distance to create an enigma, this makes the audience question what's happening and links in well with our post-apocalyptic theme because it relates to tension and suspense, qualities that we added in our music video.
All of these features we learnt from Imagine Dragons convinced us that when producing our ancillary texts we needed to implement them decisively to illustrate our connection to Imagine Dragons and make it evident to the audience the ideologies and values of the band. Using Adobe Photoshop we started this with our front cover for our digipak where we took inspiration from the Imagine Dragons album cover "On Top Of The World" by having our two survivors facing the camera looking into the distance. This was effective because it related to our band as it connotes mystery and obscurity which links in with our post-apocalyptic theme. We also used a similar font with black and grey colours that is regularly used by Imagine Dragons for our digipak and is briefly introduced in our music video. This was pleasing because with the use of different effects we added made our headings stand out more and also helped made our cover look more appealing and professional which related to Imagine Dragons covers that we had researched.
Overall, our group is happy how both our music video and ancillary texts complement each other in the way that we have represented our band Imagine Dragons core beliefs, traditions and ideologies. This was vital to understand what our bands meaning was so that we could portray them
appropriately through our work and create a product that is professional which meets the needs of growing audience.
Evaluation Question 3 (Paolo Pellegrinelli)
What have you learned from your audience feedback?
In the development of our media product, we aimed to gain audience feedback on any ideas proposed by a team member from an audience that would typically listen to our indie rock genre in an attempt to create an authentic music video.
A focus group was used as a way of adjusting our narrative to our media product with feedback by receiving suggestions on our narrative ideas. For example, in our focus group we asked how we would represent the antagonist which we incorporated into our music video as well as receiving suggestions of how to make the relationship obvious between the two main characters which we included by utilising two shots. We pitched two narratives we came up with and the focus group members would decide which narrative they preferred and what could be improved. Also, having recorded the focus group on camera we could re-watch the footage and make improvements throughout the production of the film.
We also received audience feedback from our class members on the album cover which was important in producing our final design as the audience were critical of our drafts. For example, the first candidate explained that he didn't like the burning buildings in the background as they weren't in the music video as well as what the band members appeared to be standing on. This had an affect on our final design as we changed the burning building background to the forest which was the setting for our music video as well as changing what the band were standing on from a burning building to an abandoned building which the band members were performing on.The second and third candidates had strong opinions on the colour design and considered changing it so that it would fit the post apocalyptic genre, of which we did, as our group changed the colour design from a black background with yellow flames to a black and white background which was blurred ( which was a recurring theme in the indie genre).
The last form of audience feedback we used was surveys on the Weebly website. Weebly allowed us to post surveys in order to get peoples opinions on our rough cut. This was very useful in gaining audience feedback such as whether we made the post-apocalyptic theme obvious, many of our audience ticked the no box which made us consider using colour filters in the music video to make the post apocalyptic theme obvious where we used a brown colour filter as well as black and white,which we gained positive feedback from. Another question that was on the survey was whether the relationship between the two band members was obvious, many people responded saying that the relationship was not obvious which made our group consider using more two shots of the band members and showing more interaction between the band members which we implemented into our final music video. Another question on the survey was Whether our music video kept in time with the songs tempo of which we received some negative responses. This made us check every shot that it cut in time with the beat of the song which I believe we made improvements on which are shown in our final music video.
Within our group, we decided we needed to create more suspense and tension so we quickened the editing pace during the fight scene in which we gained positive feedback from. Also, we decided that we wanted to amplify our band's star image as a result we implemented more close up shots of the band members as they were performing.
In the development of our media product we aimed to gain feedback on our target audience in order to fulfil the audience expectations of the band and the genre. Due to Imagine Dragons coming under more than one genre (Indie, rock and pop) it was difficult to accurately target an audience which would enjoy all three genres. We believe we effectively targeted a specific audience in age and music tastes through our audience feedback.
In the development of our media product, we aimed to gain audience feedback on any ideas proposed by a team member from an audience that would typically listen to our indie rock genre in an attempt to create an authentic music video.
A focus group was used as a way of adjusting our narrative to our media product with feedback by receiving suggestions on our narrative ideas. For example, in our focus group we asked how we would represent the antagonist which we incorporated into our music video as well as receiving suggestions of how to make the relationship obvious between the two main characters which we included by utilising two shots. We pitched two narratives we came up with and the focus group members would decide which narrative they preferred and what could be improved. Also, having recorded the focus group on camera we could re-watch the footage and make improvements throughout the production of the film.
We also received audience feedback from our class members on the album cover which was important in producing our final design as the audience were critical of our drafts. For example, the first candidate explained that he didn't like the burning buildings in the background as they weren't in the music video as well as what the band members appeared to be standing on. This had an affect on our final design as we changed the burning building background to the forest which was the setting for our music video as well as changing what the band were standing on from a burning building to an abandoned building which the band members were performing on.The second and third candidates had strong opinions on the colour design and considered changing it so that it would fit the post apocalyptic genre, of which we did, as our group changed the colour design from a black background with yellow flames to a black and white background which was blurred ( which was a recurring theme in the indie genre).
The last form of audience feedback we used was surveys on the Weebly website. Weebly allowed us to post surveys in order to get peoples opinions on our rough cut. This was very useful in gaining audience feedback such as whether we made the post-apocalyptic theme obvious, many of our audience ticked the no box which made us consider using colour filters in the music video to make the post apocalyptic theme obvious where we used a brown colour filter as well as black and white,which we gained positive feedback from. Another question that was on the survey was whether the relationship between the two band members was obvious, many people responded saying that the relationship was not obvious which made our group consider using more two shots of the band members and showing more interaction between the band members which we implemented into our final music video. Another question on the survey was Whether our music video kept in time with the songs tempo of which we received some negative responses. This made us check every shot that it cut in time with the beat of the song which I believe we made improvements on which are shown in our final music video.
Within our group, we decided we needed to create more suspense and tension so we quickened the editing pace during the fight scene in which we gained positive feedback from. Also, we decided that we wanted to amplify our band's star image as a result we implemented more close up shots of the band members as they were performing.
In the development of our media product we aimed to gain feedback on our target audience in order to fulfil the audience expectations of the band and the genre. Due to Imagine Dragons coming under more than one genre (Indie, rock and pop) it was difficult to accurately target an audience which would enjoy all three genres. We believe we effectively targeted a specific audience in age and music tastes through our audience feedback.
Evaluation Question 4 (Will Childs)
How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?
Through-out the whole A2 course we continuously used media technologies to help us create our music video and website.
Before we started filming we first researched the key conventions and ideologies of a indie-rock band on the internet. We used the search engine Google, then visited multiple websites such as IMDB, which helped us garner examples of typical indie bands such as Oasis and Arctic Monkeys. We also visited the website Wikipedia which was very useful due to its large database of information. These websites were useful to us as it helped us gain an insight on the ideologies of indie-rock bands.
After our research, we had to create this website as part of our coursework to upload all our work. We used a website called Weebly to create our own website, and we learned multiple skills in the use of digital technology, such as how to make a website, how to make pages featuring imported Youtube links, how to create slideshows of information and in general how to construct a professional page with multiple layouts. The development of these skills were significant to us as it made media production much easier.
After we filmed all our footage we were tasked with editing our clips on a program called Final Cut Express. During our As course we had no experience with editing beforehand and the program looked extremely complex, but after practicing on the program we developed sufficient skills on how to edit. The development of these skills and the technology available allowed us to improve our music video by adding features we previously had no knowledge of. Such features include the ability to make text appear and fade away on-screen in unorthodox animations through a program called LiveType We also included effects such as the Gaussian Blur, and a day-to-night video filter which helped us to create a more believable environment on screen. For one clip I used a plugin for a gun flash which is an effect for Adobe After Effects, which again helped us to construct a more believable and aesthetically pleasing music video.
Also, for our A2 coursework we had to produce a CD-cover and advert. We drew the ideas for our pictures on paper then set about creating them on the program Microsoft word. This program proved insufficient however as there was a limited amount of editing options and left our pictures looking unprofessional. We searched for another program and found Photoshop. This program allowed us to not only crop our pictures much more effectively, but also add multiple layers, meaning we could add text and place it over certain objects on our picture, such as on the bullet shells on our CD cover. The program also allowed us to change the aesthetic of our picture, letting us change the tint and add certain visual effects to the overall picture.
Finally, after our music video was fully editied, we used another website called YouTube. This website made it easier to share our footage with the audience as we could upload the video to the website, and also link it to our Weebly website. Again Weebly was helpful as it had an element to attach YouTube videos onto the website. This helped us to share the video with others who used the site as they could watch our music video through our website without having to visit the YouTube website.
Through-out the whole A2 course we continuously used media technologies to help us create our music video and website.
Before we started filming we first researched the key conventions and ideologies of a indie-rock band on the internet. We used the search engine Google, then visited multiple websites such as IMDB, which helped us garner examples of typical indie bands such as Oasis and Arctic Monkeys. We also visited the website Wikipedia which was very useful due to its large database of information. These websites were useful to us as it helped us gain an insight on the ideologies of indie-rock bands.
After our research, we had to create this website as part of our coursework to upload all our work. We used a website called Weebly to create our own website, and we learned multiple skills in the use of digital technology, such as how to make a website, how to make pages featuring imported Youtube links, how to create slideshows of information and in general how to construct a professional page with multiple layouts. The development of these skills were significant to us as it made media production much easier.
After we filmed all our footage we were tasked with editing our clips on a program called Final Cut Express. During our As course we had no experience with editing beforehand and the program looked extremely complex, but after practicing on the program we developed sufficient skills on how to edit. The development of these skills and the technology available allowed us to improve our music video by adding features we previously had no knowledge of. Such features include the ability to make text appear and fade away on-screen in unorthodox animations through a program called LiveType We also included effects such as the Gaussian Blur, and a day-to-night video filter which helped us to create a more believable environment on screen. For one clip I used a plugin for a gun flash which is an effect for Adobe After Effects, which again helped us to construct a more believable and aesthetically pleasing music video.
Also, for our A2 coursework we had to produce a CD-cover and advert. We drew the ideas for our pictures on paper then set about creating them on the program Microsoft word. This program proved insufficient however as there was a limited amount of editing options and left our pictures looking unprofessional. We searched for another program and found Photoshop. This program allowed us to not only crop our pictures much more effectively, but also add multiple layers, meaning we could add text and place it over certain objects on our picture, such as on the bullet shells on our CD cover. The program also allowed us to change the aesthetic of our picture, letting us change the tint and add certain visual effects to the overall picture.
Finally, after our music video was fully editied, we used another website called YouTube. This website made it easier to share our footage with the audience as we could upload the video to the website, and also link it to our Weebly website. Again Weebly was helpful as it had an element to attach YouTube videos onto the website. This helped us to share the video with others who used the site as they could watch our music video through our website without having to visit the YouTube website.