Thursday 16 December 2010
In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
Our music video is of a love/hate relationship influenced by various iconic characters and scenes in the same genre. As well as both using and developing many forms and conventions, we have also created original ideas that have some link to iconic film scenes. During our research, we tried to find powerful scenes and characters that would make our video more interesting in terms of intertextuality. We believed that by including many features/ideas from well-known films and music videos, not only would our video be better but it will also be more interesting, making reference to other media. Thus we were mostly influenced by a scene in Titanic, Michael Jackson, and also The Matrix.
Firstly there was constant reference to Titanic. This influenced us because it was of the same generic type of our music video therefore we used this as we saw it as being relevant and appropriate. From this, we included a necklace throughout our video that was similar to the one the main actress has in the film. We also reproduced the scene where she throws the necklace into the river. As we had an all male group, the main character in our video had to do this. However we didn’t just use this convention, we also developed it as our character did this whilst on a bridge. We did this because there is reference to a bridge in the song lyrics. Therefore we not only used this convention but also developed it.
We were also influenced by Michael Jackson and made constant reference to him during our music video. This was done through various things. Firstly it was demonstrated through the use of costume. Our character had all black clothing, including a black hat and a single black glove. We thought that by making our character similar to the identity of Michael Jackson, this would appeal even more to out target audience as he is not only seen as popular to them, but also as an iconic figure of music. Also, throughout our video, we never see the characters face clearly until the end of the video. By creating this anonymity, there was a sense of mystery upon both the character and audience. This mystery then affects the audience in that it makes them become more interested. As well as the clothing being in reference to Michael Jackson, we included the “Smooth Criminal Lean.” We used green screening to do this, as we created a smoky background. We found this scene to be very successful and this was reinforced by the audience feedback.
Firstly there was constant reference to Titanic. This influenced us because it was of the same generic type of our music video therefore we used this as we saw it as being relevant and appropriate. From this, we included a necklace throughout our video that was similar to the one the main actress has in the film. We also reproduced the scene where she throws the necklace into the river. As we had an all male group, the main character in our video had to do this. However we didn’t just use this convention, we also developed it as our character did this whilst on a bridge. We did this because there is reference to a bridge in the song lyrics. Therefore we not only used this convention but also developed it.
We were also influenced by Michael Jackson and made constant reference to him during our music video. This was done through various things. Firstly it was demonstrated through the use of costume. Our character had all black clothing, including a black hat and a single black glove. We thought that by making our character similar to the identity of Michael Jackson, this would appeal even more to out target audience as he is not only seen as popular to them, but also as an iconic figure of music. Also, throughout our video, we never see the characters face clearly until the end of the video. By creating this anonymity, there was a sense of mystery upon both the character and audience. This mystery then affects the audience in that it makes them become more interested. As well as the clothing being in reference to Michael Jackson, we included the “Smooth Criminal Lean.” We used green screening to do this, as we created a smoky background. We found this scene to be very successful and this was reinforced by the audience feedback.
As our video is of a love/hate relationship genre, our demographic audience is teenagers. Through using various conventions of the same genre, we thought this would appeal to our audience. However, we wanted to create it to be more entertaining, thus covering all aspects and areas of which our audience would find interesting. For this we included more action type features. Our prime influence for this was The Matrix. From this, we included stunts and effects similar to that of The Matrix, however, excluding the fighting as we thought this would be irrelevant. Furthermore, examples we included were various jump shots, the necklace magically being pulled into our main characters hand and his hat ascending from the floor into his hand. To do these effects, we filmed him actually doing the opposite, however, when editing this, we reversed it, therefore making it look like he actually did have powers. Another successful effect we did, was making the character slide across the bench. Not only did this look great but it also reinforced the idea of him having powers. This example is a convention of which we developed in our music video.
Saturday 11 December 2010
Friday 10 December 2010
How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
With our video primarily having a grey theme, we carried this into our CD cover and magazine advert by having the same colours running throughout. We also carried our distinctive imagery and dress code into our print based campaign, with the hat and glove being distinctively used. With the front of the CD cover being the biggest selling point of the CD, it is very important that people can instantly recognise who's single it is. With our front cover, we wanted it to stand out from the rest on the market, as they all consist of an artists face covering most of the panel, so we decided to put a picture of the hat and gloves only, which was worn by the artist in the video. We knew people would instantly associate it with our video, due to it being a predominant part of our video, and the powerful imagery it has. This was also carried on into our magazine advert, which also carried on the same theme of the dress code, the colours used and the font present in the CD and magazine advert. In the magazine advert, half of it is covered with a picture of our artist, with his hand on his hat, again making full use of the hat and glove. We also carried on our font style throughout the print based campaign, by having white and orange used to separate words, like Justin Timberlake and CD/Download. With this being used on all our print based products, people will know it is our product even from a long distance, just by seeing the colours used. For our back cover of the CD, we had the artist in the middle, with light shining down on him from a lamp post, connoting that he is the star and centre of attention. Again, the font used for the tracklist is in white and orange, carrying on the same theme and colours used. Our inside panels also carry on these themes, with the grey background present. On our left panel, we have tree branches in the background with the songs lyrics over it, meaning people can watch the video or listen to the song, whilst singing along to the song. For our right panel, which holds the CD, we simply used the same background, and had an image of our artist and a female holding a necklace. The necklace present is the same one from the video, and it carries on our narrative of the artist looking for the necklace in the video, as it was his girlfriends'.
How did you use media technologies in the construction, research, planning and evaluation stages?
With the availability of Google's extensive range of programs, we were able to research which locations we would use with StreetView and Google maps. With this, we were able to look for suitable locations to use, and with the ability to take a 360 degree view, we were even able to plan possible shots before we got to the location, which was very helpful, as it saved us a lot of time. We also found the song lyrics for "Cry Me A River", which made it easier for our performer to learn the lyrics, instead of repeatedly listening to the song and try to learn them, again saving us time.
Youtube played a huge role in our research, due to its ease of use and the content available. When we were planning about which song to use for our video, we had Michael Jackson in mind, and we decided that he was going to be a part of the video in some form. This instantly lead us to type in his name into Youtube, and after watching a few videos, we found a link to a Justin Timberlake video, and after our first view of Cry Me A River, we all decided to use that song for our music video. Also, we got effects for some of the backgrounds on our green screen which we used in our video. For example, the smoke and the rain effects that we used were essential to our final product, due to the unpredictable weather. We also had to use footage of glass smashing, which we first tried to reproduce by ourselves, but with our camera not being able to shot in slow motion, and the picture quality not being of the highest standard, we decided to use the clip from Youtube instead.
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