Final draft

This is my final draft for Lights out, I have made a few changes from the initial draft in response to a few peer feedback comments, such as:

• A black and white grainy filter at the end would look more effective
• The video should cut to black after vampire kills to emphasis a rewind in time
• A white flash when the vampire goes outside would look better

Final draft

First draft

Final draft

First draft

Final draft

First draft

Final website

STOKER'S website

CD Booklet Final

Question 1- SlideShare

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

Question 1

Question 2- Joomag

Open publication - Free publishing

Question 3- Prezi

Q3- What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Question 4- Video

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

CD Covers Textual analysis

 An album cover is the front of the packaging of a commercially released audio recording product, or album. It can also be the primary image accompanying a digital download of the album, or of its individual tracks and in tangible discs, serves the purpose of a protective sleeve.

Album covers typically serve 3 main purposes:

• To advertise the product inside (the CD, the band, etc)
• Show artistic expressions and identity of the artist/band
• In some instances, to serve as an identifiable image associated with the artist/band

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     Album covers have long been an important aspect of musical history, along with iconic songs and music videos, there are also many iconic album covers. Not only are artists using album covers to promote their products, but are increasingly utilising album art as a means of creating political and social statements, intertextual references and artistic expressions. 

     

     Front covers of albums conventionally include: 

•      A simplistic colour scheme
•      Allegory (hidden meanings as well as literally ones)
•      Bold and simple fonts for the band name 
•      A similar font for the album title

     Back covers usually include:

•       Copyright and year
•       Name of record company
•       Similar design or same theme as front cover
•       List of song titles, usually centred 

    The insert booklets typically include:

•        The same colour scheme for the rest of the album
•        Lyrics of the songs featured on the album
•        Pictures of the band or their mascot

    Spines usually have:

•      The name of the band
•      The title of the album
•      The record company

    Political album covers

Rage against the machine released this eponymous album in 1992. The front cover is a real photo taken of Buddhist martyr Thich Quang Duc, as he self-immolated in protest against the oppression that Buddhists were facing under Vietnamese rule in 1963. The album cover naturally sparked controversy for its graphic and upsetting content, but was argued to fit the theme of the band's political and socially related songs that featured a lot of angry "Uh!"s.         

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    Sonic Youth released the album 'Goo' in        1990 which became incredibly popular quite  quickly. The album cover used for Goo was an  illustration of a paparazzi photo taken of  Maureen Hindley and her partner David Smith  on their way to the trial of the Moors murders,  for which her sister Moira and her partner Ian    Brady were imprisoned for. 

Using album covers that encourage political discussion or cause controversy concerning protests or injustices, can serve primarily as an eye-catcher to audiences, attracting people to a product out of curiosity, but it can also promote an angle that a band wish to portray. For my album, I want a social message to come across, one concerning media stigma and its effects. I am inspired by political album covers as an influence for my ancillaries.

     
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Importance of marketing

The audience I am aiming for are followers of indie and alternative music, in order to appeal to this demographic I will need to market my product accordingly. Traditionally, music videos serve the purpose of promoting a single or an album, and I will be promoting STOKER's debut album 'moral panic'.

Hypodermic syringe theory- AS Revisit

The hypodermic syringe theory suggests that audiences are 'empty vessels' and vulnerable to impression from what is shown to them through the TV, music videos, books and radio. In AS, I became aware of the hypodermic syringe theory when researching and planning for our thriller opening Incognito I learned that there were many elements of our thriller concept that would be seen as dangerous influencing. For example, the characters in our thriller opening all appeared to be smokers: we wanted smoking to be a consistent element throughout to pay homage and make an intertextual reference to that of the popular 'gangster' crime sub-genre, also suggested by follows of the aforementioned theory to be a bad influence on its audience.  

'Incognito' 2016

Music video theorists

Sven E Carlsson

Carlsson said that music videos fell into two categories:

• Conceptual
• Performance

A conceptual music video is one that follows a story/narrative, such as Fatboy Slim- Weapon of Choice, in which actor Christopher Walken dances and flies around a hotel.

A performance video is one where the band themselves mime the words or play the instruments as a fabricated performance for the video, like Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen, in which the band mime the lyrics and their instruments.  



My music video will be heavily conceptual, with a running narrative throughout it. My story will consist of a vampire planning a party to try and overcome their social stigma, brought about by aspects of the media. When no one turns up to the vampire's party, they are very sad, but one person shows up and, due to either self-fulfilling prophecy or perhaps just instinct (it is the former though), they kill their only friend. 

Album final cover

Editing progress-10/03/17

Editing Progress- Friday 10th March

Today i finished my first draft of my music video. I used colour grading to make the dancing scenes near the end of my music video appear dream-like and happy, in contrast to the darker, colder colour grading on the final reveal shot which shows the vampire's kill. 




Here is the first draft of lights out. I am currently editing bits that have been suggested to me by my teacher. I hope to have the final edit on here by the end of the month.

Editing progress- 09/03/17

Editing- Thursday 9th March

Today I managed to reach the end of my music video with footage, meaning I now have a full sequence in place to tweak and edit effects on. It is a basic sequence at the minute but this now means that I can apply effects based on how I know the order of the footage goes in my project. Tomorrow I plan to add a couple of overlays on top of some bits and colour grade the entire music video to make it look more professional (or less amateur). I will also apply more 'Warp stabiliser' and maybe revert the effect off of some footage where I feel necessary. My media teacher watched the completed sequence today so I could see if the concept made sense to others, to which he responded that it did make sense, but I will have to export a copy to show to different audiences, perhaps those who completed the questionnaires for me, to see if the video has the same reception.

Editing progress- 08/03/17

Wednesday 8th March

Today's progress

Editing progress- 7/03/17

Tuesday 7th March- Editing

Today in editing I wanted to add a diegetic sound over the top of the music video to give the effect of fourth-wall breaking in auditory terms (perhaps 'sound barrier breaking'). I achieved this by using the razor tool in PremierePro to cut a segment in the middle of the song where I wanted the sound effect to go, so that the song, instead of being one singular section, was split into three.

 After this, I applied the 'Exponential fade' effect to the end of the first section (the whole song leading up to the diegetic sound) and the 'Constant gain' effect to the beginning of the third section (the music increasing in volume again after the sound effect has occurred). In the middle section, I adjusted the volume of the music via Audio effects control and turned the volume of the 3 second segment down to a suitable volume in which you would be able to hear other noise on top of. 

Shortly following, I downloaded a royalty free sound effect of a doorbell ringing and imported that onto my timeline, placing the sound effect on top of the 2nd segment of the song. The result: the volume decreases and stays decreased until the doorbell has rang in the music video, before increasing to its original volume again for the remainder of the video.

Here is a video tutorial I used for help in adjusting sound in Premiere Pro

Editing progress- 3/3/17

Friday 3rd March- Editing 

Today I spent one hour editing my final project and managed to edit footage to the second verse of the song. This would be about 1 and a half minutes in. I am finding myself experimenting with the Warp Stabiliser effect a lot on Premiere Pro as some of the filming I did via hand-held cameras, particularly the footage shot on the iPhone 6s. The stabiliser effect gives a smooth and professional look but I should be careful in using this sparingly as I still want intertextual referencing to old grind house horror movies which often feature shakes hand-held camera shots, such as Evil Dead. 

Editing progress- 02/03/17

Thursday 2nd March

Today I gathered together both the DSLR footage and the footage shot on the iPhone 6S onto Premiere Pro and arranged them into order. When importing the iPhone shots onto the editing timeline I had to adjust the screen settings as the format differed from that of the DSLR footage, meaning there was an inconsistency. I edited for about 3 hours and managed to piece together the first 50 seconds or so.  

Album name ideas

This week I've been trying to come up with a name for STOKER's debut album. I want it to fit the same theme as the music video will, about self-fulfilling prophecy. I think in my ancillaries (like the website) I might promote the band as semi-political (which would fit the sort of edgy conventions of being an indie follower) and thenceforth tie in all the products: the music video, the album, the website and the band. 
yeah, that sounds good. 

So my thoughts so far are something like:

• The Thomas Theorem 
• Moral Panic
• Stereotypes
• Subjectivity

Or something like that. The Thomas Theorem would be a reference to the concept of the same name, whereby something is made real because people believe in it, sometimes also known as the Tinkerbell theory, after the typical theatre production of Peter Pan in which Tinkerbell remains alive after the audience protest that they believe in fairies (they do). 

Filming- 23/02/17

Thursday 23rd February- Filming 

Today I filmed the final scenes of my music video which included the party scenes, the lip-synching scenes and ultimately, the killing scenes. I had a little under 5 hours to prepare and film the rest of my video without mistakes that had to be refilled, as getting both my actors together on one day that was convenient for everybody would be a challenge to arrange again. I went to my local supermarket and bought typical party food such as pretzels and fairy cakes before venturing back to the rendezvous/filming location/where I live to meet with the actors and get make-up and costume sorted. 

After some practice with the vampire make-up, my protagonist was still unable to look in any way scary or resembling, and so it took only 10 minutes to complete the look of Mona the vampire (no relation).

Filming in storm Doris proved to have its difficulties: though there weren't many scenes I would have to film outside, I still had to be wary of the fact that if I had any kind of formal contract with these actors, surely making them stand out for an hour in the cold and rain would be a breach. 

Another challenge of filming in the late afternoon was the setting sun. I organised the filming to be shot in chronological order so that the last shots featured in the music video would have the darkest atmosphere (in natural lighting and in tone). The location in which I filmed has along window-wall, making it apparent when the outdoors are dark or light. This was the precise room where the 'party' scene was filmed, and so we adjusted the filming schedule to the ephemerality of the day time, a struggle comparable to almost all jobs and interactions and activities there are. 

Filming 10/02/17

Friday 10th February- Filming 

Today I filmed the first wave of footage with my trusted, underpaid and underrated actor, who was happy to oblige waking up at a remarkable hour (10:37 AM) to prepare make-up and costume for the day of filming. 

Starting as we mean to go on: in chronological order, we first filmed the waking up scene in the bedroom of our indoor location. I found an old black sheet which I utilised in my mise-en-scene to make the bed which the vampire wakes up in (or rather on) more strange and coffin-like. It took various tries to get a good take where my actor was able to sit up in a low angle shot where the DSLR would comply with her height and the light outside not interfering with the exposure. 

The social media scene came next, and in the days leading up to this filming day, my actors and I had been inviting people to the party event featured in the video and adding mutual friends via the false Facebook account i had set up for the character of Mona, the vampire (no relation). 

The indie audience

You're average indie:

• Likes Mac Demarco 
• Squints in the sun
• Stares at the separation between two strips of veneer on a coffee table
• Wears Kangol semi-ironically
• Will probably say 'thrift' rather than 'charity' shop

This is important as I will be trying to appeal to these self-proclaimed enigmas- I want to know where they congregate, how I can find them, and how I can make my music video appeal to them.

Storyboarding

Storyboarding- animatic examples

 Animatics are a method of presenting a storyboard whereby music is played over the top of a slideshow of the sketches, with the stills being in time with the music the same way in which the actual footage will be in final production. These are good for illustrating how a music video will look, and are also helpful for showing how much of the song your storyboard will actually cover. 

This is my animatic. I expect that I will make some changes or have to work around some differences on the days of filming but this is my rough guide to the music video I will be filming in February. 

CD Covers- convergence cultures

When analysing album covers:
Media forms
Institutions
Genre
Representation
Audience
Ideology
Narrative

Music is an aural art form, but the packaging for the recordings has a distinct aesthetic.

No binaries:
Hepworth (2011): in an article about the resurgence in vinyl record collecting, observes the hybrid, convergent nature of his-and fellow collectors'- preferences for how they consume music in the digital era.

People either want their music fast and portable or slow and cherished but often find a place for both. 'Slow and quick, portable and tangible' duality can be seen with the vinyl record. Many people keep their music in the cloud for quick access and preserved on vinyl for its cherished antique status. (Digipaks in vinyl records)

 

Asking audience

I will be handing out this questionnaire out to different people


Questionnaire

Age:

Gender:

Describe your music taste:

_________________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________________

Do you actively watch music videos?

Y/N

Name 3 artists you are currently listening to:

_________________________________________________________________________

Do you watch their music videos?

Y/N

If so, are there any running themes within the music videos (e.g. Blonde wig in Sia music videos)?

_________________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________________

Name your favourite music video and why:

_________________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________________

Do you think music videos should provide more than just entertainment (e.g. political statement)?

Y/N

Why?

_________________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________________

Here were the responses:

A common theme I've found amongst the questionnaires that I gave out was that a lot of people seem to acknowledge the power that music videos hold in pop culture today: this is illustrated through their circling of the 'Y' after the question : "Do you think music videos should provide more than just entertainment?" and also the qualitative answers which they give afterwards, such as "I think music [videos are] an easy and creative way of providing a widespread population with a message". 

Textual analysis of A2 music video

Textual analysis A2



The music video's pace is matched with the visuals, with the camera cuts increasing as the song progresses. In terms of the lyrics and the visuals, there is a high-angle shot repeated when the lyrics say "You're giving me the look" of the boy lying down looking up at the camera. Also with the lyrics "We're always in small circles" there is a superimposition over the subject of a spinning theme park ride going around in a circle to match the words. 

The song is calm and melancholy which is matched by the location of the music video, on a bright day on a shore with saturated colours of blue, green and yellow. The music video is solely a performance piece and appears to have no intended meaning encoded within the text- so in terms of Hall's reception theory, a preferred reading from the audience simple to achieve in this music video.  

The music video begins with a tilt up shot of the tide on a sunny beach with a simplistic thin font in sans. This fits with Goodwin's 'Genre conventions' of a music video as the song is a low-key electronic song which has an arpeggio tone (light and upbeat). 

The editing shows different shots to slide into 
view, and the editor uses this technique to show the progression through the day from the beach during the day to the theme park in the night. 

Representation and the Media video

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In this video Stuart Hall talks about to visual representation of groups in the media. He outlines how a representation represents an idea which is already there (also known as a hegemonic idea). This is a useful video to consider in the planning of my music video as I am aiming to play on the representation of vampires in my music video but counteract the representation by showing the main character to subvert or comically adhere to the stereotypes of vampires. 

Stylisitc influences

As a preliminary concept, I have been a inspired by the alternative genre of music videos and, more specifically, the themes of horror films within certain music videos, that often work ironically or satirically. In researching various branches of music videos I found myself drawn to darker music videos sometimes a bit gory but generally violent or gruesome for comic effect: such as Kasabian's 'Vlad the Impaler' or Yeah Yeah Yeah's 'Heads Will Roll'. Both of these music videos were directed by Richard Ayoade, whom I did a case study on, outlining he aspects of his directing which I have been inspired by: Richard Ayoade case study. Though my music video story has been heavily altered since the beginning of the year, I still maintain these influences and I hope that they will be apparent in my final music video at the end of this year.