Friday, 8 February 2013

Message to moderator

Dear Sir/Madam,

My name is Finlay Grace Anderson and this is my blog for my G324 Media Portfolio. On my blog you will find our groups music video, along with our ancillary texts, the planning that we used for the construction of our video as well as evaluation. I worked as part of a group of four, so we shared tasks amongst us. I did a lot of editing and practical work in this project.

The page tabs on my blog should make navigating my blog easier, with everything being under the right stage of the project. The research also contains the work of the other group members, as well as the links to their blogs. Our blogs are styled to fit with the genre, using a group photo of the band as our background or a Glam Rock theme.

Thank you for reading the message, and I hope you enjoy the work we have created. 

Sincerely,
Finlay Grace Anderson

Initial Ideas

Final Evaluation Question Four.

Final Evaluation Question 1, 2, and 3.

Video Analysis Of Our Final Cut


Video Analysis Of Our Final Cut

We styled our music video in a way that would fit the genre, by using similar mise on scene, locations, performance, etc. For example, our actors had long hair, leather jackets, band shirts, etc, to look like glam rock stars, but with a modern twist, in order to appeal to both the original fans of the genre, who like the traditional glam rock style, as well as newer fans and the youth of today. This is matched by the way that the actors presented themselves, being upbeat and positive, seemingly enjoying life without caring about the consequences, another trait typical of youths and rock stars, which increased our audience demographic. 

Most glam rock videos feature a lot of random scenes, that hold little narrative, which we tried to incorporate into our video, while having something of a story in the background of the video. The random scenes occurred mainly in the local park, Ward Jackson, due to the vast amounts of natural high key lighting, and pleasant seeming landscape. This makes the video seem happy, and have a positive atmosphere to appeal to the audience, which we believe fits in the happy sounding nature of the song, as it seems to be wrote largely in the major key. 

we tried to incorporate a mixture of shots, varying landscape shots with close ups of the band and extreme close ups of instruments being played. this gives the video some variety, and therefore more interest. we also changed our locations, so not only including park footage, but that of the studio in order to have live band performances, which is a typical feature of most rock videos. we believe our actors were convincing due to all of them being real musicians, so their guitar and bass playing was accurate, with many people commenting about how it is well timed and effective. People also commented that they believed that the lip sync was also very well timed, with there being a lot of focus on it during the low key lighting scenes, which added to the variety of the video.

The main effects that we used during the video was fades, as it was a subtle effect that didn't become over bearing, as many music videos don't have any effects at all. We also included a cut zoom for the guitar solo, to add emphasis to the skill of the guitarists, and show that we payed attention to the thought beats. we also showed that we payed attention to the thought beats by focusing the start of many shots with an instrument, such as when the music kicks in we have a shot of a heavy bass strum, which works well to again show focus on to the music, as well as the camera shots. we believe that our video runs smoothly showing an effective use of final cut with nothing being over bearing, with no black screens or jumpy footage.

The narrative to our video is fairly subtle, although we tried to incorporate the lyrics by having literal interpretation. The story line features a girl who becomes infatuated with the lead singer of the band, and her feelings become stronger and more apparent as the song goes on, so "You're really growing on me", and the increase of shots between the two shows "Or are you really growing on me?" from the lead singers perspective. However, it is revealed that the lead singer has feelings for another member of the band, a male, who he skips away with "into the sunset" at the end of the video, showing a more typical romance ending. However, this is probably different to how most of the audience would expect it to end, as most people would have expected the boy and girl to get together, but it is revealed to be something of a love triangle. This questions the generic traditions of a relationship, with the girl not getting the guy, but the guys getting each other. This was in an attempt to appeal to anyone who has ever had any sort of relationship trouble, such as love triangles and un-returned feelings.

We believe our video is quite successful as it has received largely positive feedback with regards to the video being fun and up beat, due to its randomness and appeal to the audience, while still trying to portray a positive message, with a serious underlaying thought. We had subtle editing and smooth running footage and convincing actors and live performances, with enough mise en scene to appeal to all loves glam rock.

Thursday, 7 February 2013

Test footage

This is the test footage from when we began filming our music video, which consists of general test shots, landscape shots and out takes. This again keeps up with the humorous theme that we tried to incorporate throughout our project, with several funny scenes and high key lighting. We also tried to follow the glam rock style by including "Love Gun" by KISS as the track in the back ground, keeping in with the genre, but using a different band to add some more interest and prevent our work from  becoming too repetitive by featuring only The Darkness.

Audience Research


Final Advert

This is our final advert, it includes the bands title 'The Darkness' and useful information such as the new albums name 'Growing On Me' its release date and rating from popular magazines of the bands gener.  think this is a successful outcome as it shows a new approach on glam rock style with the colours and mise en scene.

Final Digipak



This is our final digipak, the band name, logo and album title and songs are all on the digipak. We also have copy right information and a bar code. We decided to keep the same back ground patten in which we used on the advert as it worked well, we made changes to the colour so it connected with the band characters. The front of the digipak and the actual CD are the only features of the digipak that do not have the pattern on. Instead we wanted them to be orignal, so we made the front cover playful by having the member having a play fight with faded out images of them behind . Over all i think that the end product is very successful and have elements of glam rock with the bight colours and playful images.