At the start of the planning process, we took into consideration that we need to, in some way, think about conventions; whether we used them at all, developed them or challenged them entirely. The process began by researching similar style videos from music of the same genre and taking notes of the conventions they displayed, and how they should be put to effect. We selected a particularly lively rock song – Ash’s ‘Shark’. We then looked at some of their work and found an underlying theme – they balanced performance-based footage and narrative-based footage extremely well in their products. From this, and with help from other existing media products, we gained an insight into understanding conventions of classic rock videos. We found that the majority of rock videos include a large performance-based part; either in front of a crowd, or depicted in a ‘jamming session’, the look that we agreed that we would do our best to portray. Our main inspiration was the video for the song ‘Stress’ by the French Electro House and Disco House group, Justice. So when filming began we tried our best to convey the feelings that we thought should be felt upon viewing the final product; anticipation, excitement, vulnerability and an element of fear.
As well as using other music videos as inspiration and concentrating all of our attention on this, it was suggested to us that we watch the dark French film ‘La Haine’, directed by Mathieu Kassovitz in 1995. This too decided for us the direction we would take. The main conventions that we noticed were from all elements of mise-en-scene; editing – we noticed that more impact could be felt it, after shooting, we converted our decent footage into black and white (we in fact ended up converted all of our final footage). This effect also adds drama and creates a somewhat sinister feel. The length of scenes and cutting style help massively to change the pace; either quick or slow – for us it was quick. The main advantage was that the cutting added an element of suspicion. For example, in our product we used very fast cuts throughout, mainly to increase the pace, but also to add that element of tension. We noticed that, in the direction and target audience we were aiming for, there were two main groups of people; antagonists – the younger generation who, as we stereotype or label in society as ‘rebels’, we built upon. The other group was victims – the vulnerable including the elderly.
I feel that, on the whole, we developed rock video conventions successfully in our product, therefore giving us somewhat of an advantage to create a, hopefully, professional-looking final product. Saying this, there were certain drawbacks that did not allow us to create a perfect mise-en-scene. These included props and actors. We had just enough props to film the narrative-based part of the video, but we struggled somewhat on the performance-based part. We only had a drum kit and electric guitar, along with the vocalist, but we ultimately needed a bass guitar but this was not feasible, so we persevered the best we could. We were even able to find a fairly decent venue for the shooting, so we had nearly enough ingredients for the performance. Another non-material aspect we lacked in slightly was confidence in the performances. The singer found it difficult to appear genuine, and along with having no accompanying soundtrack, very difficult to produce.
Along with our music video are ancillary texts so that the buyer doesn’t get only a CD; they get more which assures them that their money has gone further than they initially thought. These comprise of a postcard, which is used to the band’s advantage as further promotion, a competition offer with an added incentive to win tickets to see Standard Meeting live, and a magazine advert; again, extra promotion with information on the band and where to locate the product.
In my opinion the main product, along with these extras work very effectively together for a number of reasons. Appearance; text, colours and format matched, thus maintaining continuity and ultimately allowing the audience to familiarise themselves with the band. This too ties in with the images used, which were taken by myself. They have an element of exclusivity to them and display the style of the band – almost like a trademark of Standard Meeting – a black and white contrasty appearance. Choice is another appealing aspect. We offered as a band, a postcard and a competition offer which appeal to potential buyers as the band are giving something back to them. I think all in all, a decent package that a prospective buyer would think twice about putting back on the shelf.
We chose these texts as the majority of bands use them, and we were familiar with how they worked, and how to create them.
We were given very helpful constructive feedback on our blog through comments made on our planning, final product and ancillary texts. The majority of feedback we got was positive and focused on how fitting the video was to the song, the quality and content of the photographs and finally the effectiveness of accompanying ancillary texts. One comment, though constructive, I did not agree with in a way. It was said that a fair few shots were shaky; this was deliberate. We could easily have captured all still, sharp shots as we had access to a tripod at all times, but this was not the aim. We felt it appropriate to include shaky handheld shots as this creates a point-of-view effect, thus allowing the audience to feel more involved, and heightening the feelings of vulnerability and suspense. As a group we learnt from this and plan to improve upon a few points, to make our intentions clear in future projects. We also plan to, if appropriate to our next project, find better actors to make the production feel more sincere, and more realistic.
We also used new media technologies in every stage of the process; construction, research, planning and evaluation. When planning we used websites such as Vimeo and YouTube, to watch videos to gather an insight into how to attain what we wanted. YouTube is extremely useful, as it is updated constantly, and allowed us to watch specific and up to date videos. Using this, we watched existing media products including Ash’s earliest to latest videos, and other band’s music videos for inspiration. We also used other websites to research previous singles and albums, which in effect allowed us to create certain ancillary texts. This meant planning and research was combined altogether, and the use of these media technologies halved the time it would have taken to do it separately. Furthermore, this was effective in creating a schedule for creating all parts of the product; it broke up time into planning, filming and editing. Equally, other software aided us to get the product finalised. ‘Final Cut Express’ was very instrumental as this is where all of the editing was done. Final Cut uploads both the audio and visual properties of footage, and allowed us to edit them separately, making it extremely easy to completely change the mood and feel of our product. Cutting up our footage to re-order and such was hugely useful, and yet again easy. The best part of Final Cut, is that it is extremely easy to use, and anyone can use it.
Not only did we use technologies for construction of our music video and planning process, we took advantage of it to use it for our ancillary texts; the postcard, magazine advert and competition offer. I created the DigiPak, which I created using a number of my photographs. Using Adobe Photoshop CS3, I was able to import the images and rearrange and edit them to create the effect we were going for. I encountered a problem with arranging these images, as I wanted them to create quite a contemporary look along the length of the inside of the DigiPak. This was not due to the technology itself, but because of the properties of the image, and a slight lack of knowledge of how to attain certain effects using CS3. The software also allowed me to work in layers, which made it easy to correct mistakes without starting from scratch and lose as little time as possible. The other most important technology we used was the video camera. The simplicity of the controls made it easy to shoot the exact footage we wanted, and along with the tripod, was practical.
Overall, we found these media technologies highly instrumental for our project, and helped us create a half-decent product. We couldn’t have done any of the project without using any form of technology.
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