Final Edit

Here is the Final Edit of our music video Peace Is Free

Here is the feedback form the music video

"loved the music vid mate, really works well with the song, liked how the pics at the back was all black and white and the last pic with the Hendrix quote like fades out, at times it did get a bit blurry and some of the pics were depressing but i loved it mate well done"

"cool video bud, but one thing bugged me the guitar in the vid is a 12 string but the guitar in the song is a 6 string, but other than that cool"

"wow really emotional, especially the pics in the background, made me want to go out and help people lol"

"video was good, song was a bit naff the recording, i could hear movement and a bell throughout, but other than that i think it was well good"

Evaluation 4

4. how have you used new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

For the planning and Evaluation stages, blogger was used to document as many of the stage as was physically possible, this enabled us to have a clear way of keeping on track for the project and to show us how far we had come and what else there was to do, we used youtube heavily for the research side, to look at different music videos to find the codes and conventions for the acoustic rock genre, then when we decided to use a green screen we looked at a lot of music videos that use similar technology and how effective it was for them.

Google in particular was fundamental to the making of the music video, firstly to research music videos and artists but also when we came across a new piece of technology we needed to learn how to use, google also gave us the opportunity to keep in contact with one another and if any work was done at home we could email it to each other for evaluation and email it to ourselves for easy data moving rather than a memory stick which could get lost or broken.

we used Windows Movie Maker to produce an animatic of our music video, we took pictures of our storyboard with a digital camera, uploaded them to a laptop and put them together against the song so we could get a rough idea of the flow and feeling of the video, so we could make any changes that would make it flow better.

we used play.com and next.com to research the clothes for the music video, play.com we used to research the t-shirt, as it is a popular site for t-shirts, it gave us a plethora of t-shirt to choose, and next we used for there wide choice of denim jeans, as they do designs like slim fit, boot fit, and worn, we used facebook to get feedback from friends and to keep in contact with each other.

For the filming of the video we used a panasonic SDR-S26 video camera with a HD SD card, before we started filming i took the camera home, and researched online all the features of the camera, so i knew how to use it and did several different screen test, to test the capabilities of the camera, to see what the best light to use was and how it reacted to fast movement and other factors, and to make sure i knew how the tripod worked, i also did several screen tests against a green screen to ensure that it was possible to use this camera with a green screen, when it came to using Adobe Premier elements 9 i approached it again with this mentallity making sure i knew it inside and out before editing, learning how to use the green screen key, especially the threshold and cutoff, and the eight point garbage matte and the old film, especially when it came to the last picture, where i increased the damage and colour sepia black & white, so the last picture appears to break down like in old films, i again approached photoshop in the same way, learning about the different layers, and how to lay the bullets out into a convincing 3d image of the peace symbol, all of this was new to us so we had to make sure we knew how it worked before we even attempted to make a video, so we could know the limits of the technology and then to try and push it further.

Throughout the production of our media products we were using digital cameras in recces and to document our progress, memory stick to back up our work incase something went wrong with the laptop, so we could simply move to a different laptop and continue, and mp3's to record the song and ipods to listen to the music and play it through speakers so the lip syncing would be convincing.

Evaluation 3

3. what have you learned from audience feedback?


"loved the music vid mate, really works well with the song, liked how the pics at the back was all black and white and the last pic with the Hendrix quote like fades out, at times it did get a bit blurry and some of the pics were depressing but i loved it mate well done"

"cool video bud, but one thing bugged me the guitar in the vid is a 12 string but the guitar in the song is a 6 string, but other than that cool"

"wow really emotional, especially the pics in the background, made me want to go out and help people lol"

"video was good, song was a bit naff the recording, i could hear movement and a bell throughout, but other than that i think it was well good"

I got these feedback quotes, from friends of mine over facebook, and one by text, and the friends i picked to watch it were either media studies students or musicians as i thought that they would be the best people for giving feedback.

with the second piece of feedback i understand why the fact that a 12 string guitar was played but a 6 was heard, when the song was recorded the only guitar available at the time was a 6 sting classical guitar, but when it came to filming the guitar looked too small like a child's toy whereas the 12 string was big and brash and a notable presence.

with the first piece of feedback, when the fact that the video went blurry, i explained by the fact that due to poor lighting conditions when it came to editing the threshold and cutoff for the green screen key needed tweaking heavily, so that the background and artist are distinguishable this lead to some blurry scenes, or strange cutoffs on close ups.

if given the chance to make another music video arises these feedback's will be especially helpful so next time i can assure that the guitar matches and that everything is well  lit enough that when it comes to editing these problems don't occur again.

Evaluation 2

2. How effective is the combination of your main and ancillary products?

Our music video and digipak and tour poster, our very well combined, the music video has a simple message about war and peace, and the digipak and tour poster reflect this with the image of the peace symbol made out of bullets, the use of the peace symbol on the tour poster and digipak are definitely related but we also used the peace symbol in the music video, and even though its a well known symbol for peace we took it and used it as an impromptu brand, especially concerning the message of the music.

The digipak and tour poster use basic colours especially black, which is reflected in the music video, but whereas its a definite black and grey in the tour poster and digipak we approached the music video more subtly, instead of going for a gloomy black or grey we took the narrative part of the music video and applied a old film effect to it which made it black and white, so all the products have a dark minimalist theme to them but approached differently for each of the products.

As a whole i believe that the products represent the acoustic rock genre that we used, they have a minimalist feel to them without being devoid of energy or power, the fact that it is stripped back, almost raw in its approach, allows the message to ring through a bit harder, that is why we made the decision to make it like it is.

Evaluation 1

1. in what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products

Our music video uses most of the conventions and forms that most music videos use, it has a performance part and a narrative side, but unlike some our narrative and performance are happening at the same time, whilst the artist is playing we have the narrative projected behind him against a green screen, whereas with most there might be overlap between performance and narrative, usually there is a separate narrative and performance, with a story being told, which then cuts to shots of the artist performing.

The performance part of the video follows most conventions of music videos in the sense that there is an artist singing and playing an instrument, whereas the narrative is somewhat unique in the sense that it is made up of pictures exclusively, but the pictures don't just appear on the screen for an equal and allotted amount of time, we sped up the speed that the changed, slowing down as well for some of the more shocking images, so the full effect of the image can be seen, we also tried to ensure that a picture doesn't stay on during cuts, where the performer moves but the picture doesn't, we also kept the performance in full cover, but we added an effect to the narrative, giving it a black and white old film style, we got the inspiration of this from Black Stone Cherry's "Things My Father Said" how the music video starts and ends with an old film effect, and how the music video throughout has a slight sepia colour tone, there is still colour but faded like a memory, we did this foremost to separate the performance from the narrative, the song is about war and peace, so we picked pictures associated with war and peace but during one line, the lyrics change to "because this is one short life that we live", so at this point we decided to add pictures of famous music artists that died at a young age, this also i feel adds a bit of freshness to the music video, just to break up the pictures of war, hatred and other atrocities.

We lip Synced to the song, so that when it came to editing, it would be easy to sync the music to the raw footage, because the song is a sombre song, in the acoustic rock genre, we decided against having much movement from the artist, so it was decided that the movement for the video would come from the narrative of the pictures in the background, usually in this style of music the artist doesn't move much so this gave us some freedom when it came to movement to simply take the movement and use it in the background narrative.

For the mise-en-scene because the song and video we imagined, of an every day, working class man, standing up, expressing what he believes, and starting his own peaceful revolution, we decided that he should be dressed in everyday working class clothes, so a white t-shirt with a stormtrooper design and denim jeans was the choice of costume we went with, and we picked a guitar that was not a expessive top of the range guitar but the type of guitar that anyone guitarist could own, that ability to stand up, as you are, and express such a strong belief, a belief that strong it attracts all around who believe in it aswell, we looked at John Frusciantes "The Past Recedes" how he just wakes up like everyone else, wanders around his house, and then sits on the floor to play a beat up old guitar, that idea that it doesn't matter where, when, how your dressed, what you own, just the fact that we are all connected because of music.

For the digipak we decided to keep the theme very simple, like the music video, so we used a simple theme, a plain black background, with a peace symbol on the front cover, only this one is made from bullets, and the centre of the peace symbol is removed from the whole and sits just out of reach almost like a metaphor for peace, how it is so close, but just out of reach and yet to be whole, we also took a line from the song "Can't the whole world love one another, throw down your weapons, fix all the hunger" we picked this because we felt that of all the lines in the song it had the most effect emotionally to the listener even though it is found at the end of the song, it sums up the song and the message of the song, also just behind the cd and on the edge of the digipak we have included more peace symbols to really illustrate the message.

The tour poster we kept in the same theme as the digipak, it has a simple design but the background is grey and black around the edge, the artists name is at the top, with the peace symbol underneath except this time it is complete, giving the impression that during the gig the audience bring peace closer to fruition, and that the time within the gig, brings everyone closer together, that they are the revolution, underneath that we have put the supporting artists and gig dates and links where the tickets can be brought and any information on the artist, also at the bottom left is a picture of the digipak.

Effects Models

Hypodermic Needle Theory 20's

• A reaction to radio cinema and photography
• No consideration for a persons education, intelligence or experiences
• Assumes audiences are passive and heterogeneous
• Fears audiences will mimic what they see

Two Step Flow Theory 40's-50's

• Research on hypodermic needle theory showed people did not copy all the they saw so a new theory was required
• Turns out media does not have direct infuence and most people wait for someone else to tell them their opinion on media texts
• Research showed informal, personal contacts were mentioned far more frequently the exposure to radio or newspaper as sources of influence on voting behaviour

Uses And Gratifications Theory 70's Blumler & Katz

• After a generation had grown up with TV now the new theory said media consumption was often secondary
• Diversions - escape from everyday problems and routine
• Personal Relationships - using the media for emotional and other interactions
• Personal Identity - finding yourself reflected in texts, learning behaviour and values from texts
• Surveillance - information which could be useful for living

Reception Theory 80's-90's - Stuart Hall

• Individuals receive and interpret texts
• Their individual circumstances affect their reading
• This leads to different interpretations of the same text

Idea Changes

Our idea was good, but there was a lot of problems with it, and so we decided to change our idea.

The problems we had with our previous idea were:
- The Lickey Hills Country Park is difficult to get to, it is pretty far from the sixth form and so the amount of filming we would have been able to do would have been limited, we thought that we wouldn't have had enough time to film everything we needed.
- Our idea also contained a lot of people, in this case we would have had to tell everyone to meet at the Lickey Hills Country Park. Since it is difficult to get to, we presumed that not many people would have turned up, making the crowd we wanted look more like a group of friends, rather than anything else.
- Another problem was taking the props and instruments up to the Lickey Hills Country Park. As previously mentioned before, it is difficult to get to, and transporting the instruments would have been extremely difficult.

- At The Lickey Hills Country Park there is a lot of people who go there for various reasons, we would have found it difficult to film because of the general public would have been included within the filming and that would be difficult especially with continuity errors if we were to re-film certain parts.

So we changed our idea, we wanted to make it simpler but just as good. So we went back to the researching stage and came up with an idea.

Idea 4 and our final idea: After some discussions, we realised that in our previous idea we were going to create banners and posters that people would have held up, so instead we thought about having pictures hanging up on the trees. We then decided on the location of the filming, we thought about any local parks, and we came up with Kings Norton Bicycle Path. The path has quite a lot of trees, with a river running through it. It was the perfect location, especially since when the sun is shining, it splits through the trees and lights up the path. Liam will be the musician, he will walk along the path, as if something has just got him annoyed and this is his way of reliving the stress he has. He sings Peace Is Free and comes across photos that are hanging in the trees, that link in with the song.

We inted to use the following photos as part of our music video:

Audience Theory

The Two Questions

1. How powerful are the media in influencing the ideas and behaviour of the audience?
2. how does the media shape an audiences perception of the world?

Three Different Ways to Consume Media Texts 

• Primary Media
  These texts demand close and concentrated attention from the audience
• Secondary Media
  These texts provide a background for an audience who are often doing something else at the same time and are distracted
• Tertiary Media
  These texts are consumed by audiences who are almost unaware of their own engagement with the media

The Four Media Theory Models

1. Hyperdermic Needle Model
2. Two Step Flow Model
3. Uses And Gratifications Theory
4. Reception Theory

Mise-en-scene

Guitarist

The idea of the guitarist is that he is an everyday person, who has seen the world from his own perspective and decided to stand up and start his own revolution against war and hatred and depression, calling on the people to stand with him against the negative aspect of sociat.

 Costume

The costume for the performance is a t-shirt with a stormtrooper design and denim jeans, this is to represent youth and the everyday person, the idea that anyone can stand up and sing about peace and war,

















 Props

The Only prop throughout the music video is the acoustic guitar which the artist used which is a freshman 12 string dreadnought guitar

Pictures

There will be lots of pictures presented against the green screen so i have put together a mood board of some of the pitures that will be featured throughout the video.

Audience Demographic

Our Music video is in the acoustic rock genre, so the audience demographic is most likely going to be;

• Ages 14-30
  
• White
  
• working class to lower class
  
• to both male and female

I believe it is this demographic because the music is aimed at a younger audience as it is centred around peace and revolution from war, and the younger people are the future and will be the ones resposible for any future changes, i picked white because acoustic rock music is listened to by mostly white middle to lower class people, and i didn't choose between either sex, because its aimed at everybody not just a specific sex, but females generally are more likely to listen to a soft acoustic song than a male.

Institutions

Kerrang! TV is a digital television station owned by Box Television, which is loosely connected to the magazine, Kerrang!. As of 2005, all of its programme content is music videos, the majority of which is open scheduled, for text requests from their playlist.

 

 

MTV Rocks (formerly MTV Two, MTV2 Europe and M2), is a 24-hour alternative music channel operated by Viacom International Media Networks Europe. The channel is widely available throughout Europe on subscription satellite and digital television services.

Planet Rock is a multiple Sony Award-winning digital radio station in the United Kingdom. The station broadcasts classic rock music. It is available nationally via the Digital One DAB network, and on Virgin Media cable television, on Freesat and Sky, its website and via an Android or iPhone App.

DigiPak Analysis : 30 Seconds To Mars A Beautiful Lie

 This Digipak is for the band 30 Seconds To Mars' Album A Beautiful Lie, it is a alternative rock/ post-hardcore album, it is a CD - DVD pack with MTV live and unplugged sessions.

 the colour scheme of the album follows the bands colour scheme or red, black and white, and the albums artwork is very unique and follows the theme of a alternative rock band, with dark provoking images.

 the booklet found within the digipak gives information on the songs and the band and features pictures of the band. all wearing black with a red and white backdrop.

 the pictures within the booklet are in colour but the blacks, whites and reds have all been emphasized, with the contrast turned up quiet high.

the digipak opens up in a cross shape revealing the cd and dvd and booklet with the lyrics to all the songs written on the backgroung, in a small text and repeating with mars army written above








this is a good digipak for the style of music the band plays, it stick well to the bands theme, and represents the music they play very well.

DigiPak Analysis : Guns N Roses Greatest Hits

 This is the Guns N Roses, Greatest Hits digipak, its a two cd set of the guns n roses best selling singles, on the front cover it has the guns n roses symbol, which is synonymous with the guns n roses, the backgroung colour is a simple gun metal grey, so the focus is on the symbol and the guns n roses name.

 the back has a picture of the band, with the song titles above them, the picture was taken during the eighties when the band was still together, even though the digipak came out in 2004, so the rest of the digipak follows this theme, so all the text and images are all similar styles to ones found in the eighties.

the inside has more pictures from the eighties, and the two cds have the same symbol as found on the front this time in colour from the way the band is dressed and the styling of the digipak its easy to see that this is a hard rock band.





This DigiPak is Very impressive the front gives an idea of class and importance by being simple and unassuming, whereas when opened its easy to see the music style and the genre of music within.

DigiPak Analysis : Hugh Laurie Let Them Talk Special Edition

 This Digipak is the special edition version Hugh Lauries album let them talk, it is an extended version of the album and comes with a dvd included, of live recordings and the making of the album

 also included in the digipak is a small booklet about the artist who he covers, information on the band and each song and who recorded what part of the song.

 this album is in the style of new orleans blues, so the digipak is in black a white, as when most of the music covered in the album was originally played at a time when there was only black and white pictures and television, and the album is mostly acoustic music, so the digipak is style to be very soft and ambient.

 also to follow the style of music which he plays the digipak is very minimilist, in the scence that there isn't an abundance of pictures, showing pictures of new orleans, not only the birthplace of the style of music but also the place where the album was recorded.

 within the booklet there is a greater variety of colours but even then they are either soft pastel colours, like light green. orange and blue, and some of the pictures have a sepia effect to them.

overall the digipak is a great representation of the album within, from the outside its easy to see that it will be easy listening music, not overbearing or garish

Tour Poster Analysis : Them Crooked Vultures

This Tour poster is closer to a "standard" tour poster, with the artists name at the top followed by a picture relating to the artist, then tour dates and information about the tickets, the tour poster style is distressed or vintage which is currently a popular design type of the crungy blues music that they play.

the picture os of 3 men in suits with vultures, this works well witht he bands image as it is a three piece band, and the man in a suit with a vultures head is similar to the album cover art.

Tour Poster Analysis : Foo Fighters

This tour poster is pretty unique in the scence that most tour poster have tour dates on whereas this one doesn't have any tour dates, it has the bands name, then a picture that is slightly degregated which is similar to most of the foo fighters album art and poster art, the vintage distressed look, the artists name is clearly shown at the top of the poster.

as a poster its not very effective as it gives no dates, no venues or no information on buying tickets or even websites or phone numbers to get the tickets, this gives the impression that further research is necessary for purchasing the tickets.

Tour Poster Analysis : Joanne Shaw Taylor

This Poster is different to most other posters, most posters have the artists name at the top, which this one does, but usually underneath the artists name is a picture of the artist or and image synonymous with the artist, where as in this one underneath the artists name is all the tour night they are doing, then underneath that is the artist picture,

the image itself is not of the album cover art but a picture of the artist performing, taken from the last tour, usually album cover work or the band posing would be on the poster but in this case it is of the artist performing.

Final Draft of DigiPak

After much consideration on how I would closen the connections between my final digipak and music poster, I came up with sticking to the theme of peace and war. In doing so, I took a picture of a bullet and decided to use that as part of our digipak. Next I went into photo shop and duplicated the bullet a number of times, I then created one half of the peace sign using the bullets. I took another picture of the bullet, but facing the other way and duplicated it a number of times and created a circle (the other half of the peace sign), now the bullets look like they're going to collide. The first half by going through the second half, suggesting that at a certain point in time the bullets will come together and create the peace sign.

I also drew the peace sign (see below) and scanned it into the computer, then I split it up in half and put it on seperate pages, this allows for the peace sign (which was coloured in the same colour as an axolotl) to be full when the digipak is put together, it also suggests that we do not have world peace, as of yet, and that certain places need to be fixed to get world peace. These pictures replaced the images on my first draft of the sun and the moon.

As for the text, I've kept it the same, however I have added production and copyright information on the back cover, which is found in my research on various digipaks. As for other text, I have added some memorable lyrics: "Can't the whole world love one another. Throw down your weapons fix all the hunger". This is to show what this album means to the artist and gives us something to think about.

As for the final page, I have added the peace sign so that it fits exactly where the CD would fit, this is what "The Axolotls" want, they want Peace, not war, and so this suggests that there should be peace in this world sometime in the future.

Final Draft of Poster

For the final draft of my music poster I had to make sure that it would relate theme wise to the digipak. This was not easy, as I wanted to use the same images I used for the front cover of the digipak, without them being the same. So I decided to make the bullets collide, making the tour "The Peace Tour", suggesting that peace won out over war.

I used the same images from my digipak, however I made sure the bullets were together. This was extremely difficult due to the fact that each bullet is on a different layer so that I could integrate the bullets so they made the shape I wanted them to.

I took off the wave on the tour dates, since they were no longer part of the sea, since I had changed the background. I also changed the cover of the digipak in the bottom right-hand corner, since I had changed the cover of my digipak.

As for the text, I had kept everything pretty much the same, keeping it in Palatino Linotype. I also added the call numbers of the venues so that the people in that area could phone up the venue to buy tickets.

I changed the background with the interest of trying to make the bullets of Peace the centre of attention, the background highlights the image drawing the audience in as it is the first thing they see. I also kept the colour scheme as it relates to the digipak.

1st Draft of Poster

This is the first draft of our music poster, yet again, similarly to the digipak, the theme does not link in with the music video. So that is definitely something that will needed to be changed so that it relates to both of our media products.

I used a number of different techniques to complete this music poster. First off, I used Microsoft Office PowerPoint to construct my music poster. This proved helpful as it allows you to use a background image, and it fits it to the page, wheras with other possible software that allows you to construct a poster, would have kept the background at it's original size, which wouldn't have worked.

I used text from my digipak such as the logo and the font: Palatino Linotype. I also included the front of our digipak, and put it at the bottom of the poster, which is something that is frequently found in my research of music posters. I also used WordArt so that all the text looked similar, and I also used the transform tool, and used "double wave 2", so that the text change into a wave. This is what I used for the text that appears in the ocean below. Furthermore, I used the same colour I used for the logo. To do this I had a look at the colour model and checked how much red, blue and green are used to get the same colour as an axolotl, using that I added the colour to the text.



Background image.

As for the background image, I used an original photo that I took while I was on holiday. It was taken on one of our many boat trips that we used to have during our holidays. It is of the British Coastline (see right), but has no link with the music video and digipak, therefore making it unresourceful. As for my final music poster, I shall change the background image so that it links in more, theme wise, with the music video and digipak.

1st Draft of Digipak

This is the first draft of our digipak. There are a few problems with it, the main one being the theme, as it does not relate to the music video or the music poster. The pictures will be changed so that the theme relates through out.

To create and edit our digipak I used Photoshop, this enabled me to change certain things with the pictures and text I used. As for the text, I have made sure the fonts are the same which is Palatino Linotype. As for the logo I used a picture of an axolotl and used the shape tool to edit the text so that it was in the image of an axolotl. Furthermore I used the colour of the axolotl using the soandso tool, and then filled in the letters so that the logo would have the same colour as an axolotl.


Photo of crowd at a concert

As for the background image I used an original photo that I took of the crowd while at the gig. The original picture (see right) is of a crowd at a concert when the lights are down and the glowsticks are visible, and various other flashing light merchandise. I then used Photoshop to crop the picture and duplicate it 3 times so that it fit perfectly as a background. The image then turned out space-like, so I used pictures I took of the sun and the moon, while taken on holiday, and faded them into the background. The logo that I also faded into the background, is similar to Bullet For My Valentine's digipak "Scream. Aim.Fire." I decided to do this as they are of a similar audience.

As for the barcode and the record company, I used ............. This was a helpful website allowing me choose between different types of barcodes so that I could use the type of barcode that resembles the types of barcodes found on the back of digipaks. Along with this, I created my own record company logo, by using http://www.onlinelogomaker.com/ this enabled me to make the logo to the size I want it, I was also able to include photos and text, this is definitely one of the easiest logo makers that you can use online, because you are able to create a logo the exact way you want it to be.

In my next draft, I shall make sure that it links in more with the music video and the music poster, I will also use different photos that link in with the music video.

Refilming

we have decided to refilm our music video, but with some changes;

The song will stay the same, but we are going to film the music video against a green screen, which we are going to apply pictures against which are going to be generally fast paced but the speed of the pictures will changes so there will be crescendo's and diminuendo's this is so it isnt just a slideshow of pictures the pictures themselves are the narrative, with the ups and downs of conventional narratives.

And whilst that is happening the performance will be occuring with the narrative in the background, we are thinking about the narrative being in black and white with the performance in normal colour, this ensures that the performance and narrative are two seperate entities.

We are also considering having fast pace words appear ontop of the pictures perhaps in red, which have key words concerning war and peace, but with the lyrics within them, and when the lyrics appear they are projecting on the performer but when there are no lyrics the words will be behind the performer.

Video Issues

Looking at the video i have several issues concerning the quality of the performance and how it was filmed; firstly the zooming on the camera is jolty and inconsistent, instead we should have physically moved the camera nearer, also there are buildings in the background which pulls away from the feeling of the video, and the performance feels dull and unimaginative, the costume is boring and bland, we faced a lot of problems filming outside especially with the weather, the weather was either too cold or too wet to film, so when we were able to shoot we rushed and its apparent in our video.