Feedback #4 - research assessment

Well done, as a group you are working effectively to plan and research the production and are all working at approx a B/A grade level (15-16/20). You are very confident in your ideas when you discuss them verbally, however this is not translating to the blog which is the vital evidence for marking work. You are using it to “record” ideas – but not really explore your concept (Oli has provided some evidence of this in the group). General feedback to all three:

• Clear contribution of relevant focused research into similar products, with a progressive improvement in using using critical frameworks to inform analysis
• At this stage, time management very good
• Pitch very well presented verbally, however could have been improved in terms of use of ICT

Key points for securing A grade planning:

• EVERY POST MUST BE PROOFED FOR PUNCTUATION AND SPELLING FOR L4
• Improve layout of posts – use colour, subheadings, highlight key words/phrases. At the moment it is not demonstrating excellence in use of ICT
• storyboard sketches - take photos and upload to show progress towards animatic. Make sure your storyboarding process is improved from last year – more detail
• Not all the individual feedback comments I gave have been completed
• The actual Pitch post needs to have a clear list of all the areas covered in the prezi, so the moderator can see what it contains. Put slides on pitch evaluation post.
• Audience research results need to be clearly posted and evaluated
• Reccie photographs - VITAL
• Be more reflective and collaborative – for example the post on the drama studio reccie was very vague. You should have been discussing ON THE BLOG the ideas that came out of it

OH- Further concept development

After seeing the beginning of the anamatic, in my mind our video seemed to be coming together, although there werent quite enough shots, due to the fact we purely hadn't drawn enough, however the general gist of the anamatic really gave me enthusiasm about our video. I have had more shot ideas, such as CU of a foot as eddy gets up to get on the train, using natural framing also of the train doors possibly to add meaning, also eddy sitting on a tube with no one on either side of him, connoting his loneliness and the sad emotions he is trying to portray threw out the video.

I think the church could offer alot of shot ideas which would be very effective with natural framing with all the arches that are in the church, also a church is normally a very well lit pace, so this will alow us to use lighting to a good effect during the perforance by me and jack. Hopefully after the recci to the church we will have more of an idea about the exact shots thats we would be able to shoot.

EU - Practicing with the Cameras, shooting a performance

Spending time in the drama studio we got to practice what shots we have planned work, and what dont work. luckily we didnt have much trouble with any of our practiced shots so that still leaves our shot variety open because there is no definate shot which we cant do. we found that over the shoulder shots look very good and so do close ups of instruments being played.

Feedback #2

Well done - your pitch was convincing and showed a clear concept informed by primary and secondary research. I would like to see some reccie shots of Speldhurst church, taking into account band performance on here so you can effectively storyboard shots.

Also - amend the evaluation of the pitch to be more specific - what shots were well accepted, what ideas do you need to go away and reflect on or improve. Any technical ideas?

Pitch For Drops of Jupiter by Boyce Avenue 3

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EU - Why is storyboarding useful?

When we storyboard our music video it will force us to go over each specific shot were planning so therefore we can analyse each one and decide whether any change needs to be made or any problems with that shot.

JH - Predicted days of shooting

We are planning to take the cameras out in the half term week approaching, however due to Edd being on holiday this cannot happen. A suitable alternate date for this is the weekend after half term when Edd is back and all three of us can go up to London and start shooting. This will mean we will start to shoot the narrative side of the video which will consist of various locations up in London, including London bridge, Trafalgar square, St Pauls and Shad thames. This shoot will inclucde the need of our HD camera and a tripod only.

Our performance side to the video will be in a local place and therefore we would rather shoot up in london first in case of the possibility of having to re-shoot. We will fim the performance side of the video the following week in Speldhurst chance as already stated and for this will need the same equipment as before but possible with an addition of lighting equipment like spotlights.

We would hope to get both sets of filming completed in those seperate weekends with enough time to re-shoot if need be. With this gap in between filming seperate parts of the video we will be able to look at our footage which will also help us decide what parts to shoot in terms of the perfomance aspect rather than looking at the footage all at once at the end and realising it isn't what we would like.

OH- evaluation of pitch.

Our pitch went down very well with the class, there was lots of positive feed back, especially how we linked our audience research and genre research to our concept and ideas which will hopefully make our video more appealing to a target audience of that genre because we have researched the genre charachteristics.
Our actual pitch was criticised for not using possibly as much use of IT to portray our ideas, however we were told that the way we explained the pitch and the slides was very good. Also we were told that at occasions in the slides that there was too much writing being used, however we did use pictures well so that was another positive thing to take away from the pitch.
Generally it was a very positive load of feedback from the pitch, the whole class agreed that they could visualise how our video was going to look and that the pitch had confirmed it for them. we were the only group that had covered all areas in enough detail to be able to go and film.

OH-Deconstructing a digipack.

Deconstructing a digipack.

Text, font

Text, font
Paulo Nutini’s written in a fairly loose yet stylish way, which conforms to his genre of music being about happiness, going with the flow and just having a good time. This is written far bigger than the other piece of text saying “Sunny side up”, this piece of text isn’t written in white with a red outline like the main piece of text, I think that this is to not draw attention away from the name of the artist. However sunny side up still conforms with the general theme of the digipack about being happy. The name even in my mind connotes happiness. It relates to the rest of the digipack because I think the words connote happiness and a sense of a good morning. Even though a majority of his songs seem quite emotional, personal and to some extent sad.

Visual signifiers
The Visual signifiers of this digipack are The set of the cartoon and the man sitting at the table, The general theme of the cartoon is fairly simplistic in many ways, however has been made to look very effective. For example something which is seemingly insignificant as the main character wearing a straw hat is actually very significant since it constructs and is a part of the artist’s image, the general setting of the cartoon seems very laid back, everything about the whole image conforms to the image that the artist is trying to portray. The guitar for example relates to the genre of music, involving a lot of acoustic guitar, where as the rainbow in the picture behind him just connotes general feelings of happiness, you can imagine waking up, having a nice breakfast and having a good time, which is what’s going on in this picture. Sunny side up also obviously is related to the eggs that he is eating being “sunny side up”. The colours used are very bright and eye catching, this draws attention to the product from a potential customer and also conforms with the generally happy theme of the seemingly happy scenario. However I think that the use of colour could also be interpreted in a different way, since the use of colour is red green and yellow. I believe that this could connote that something in his life is stopping and starting, or something is missing which would undermine the tone and image being portrayed as being happy.

Social myths
I suppose the only social myth is that most artists in this genre are seemingly happy, however the interpretation of the use of colour meaning that something in his life is missing and that it’s stop start of up and down could undermine the myth of the artists in the genre being happy, and brings about a darker understanding/element to the digipack

Indexical sign.-
The product gives many indexical signs, the hat and the guitar are two visual signifiers that the people consuming this media text will see and take into account, from this they may take these fashion and lifestyle ideas and implement them into their own lives and personalities. the simplistic lifestyle the character in the digipack seems to be having is very appealing to lots of people, which from this they may incorporate to there

JH - Digipack cover analysis

Step 1 -

• Firstly there are obvious linguistic signs embeded in this cover, one of which is his name, Mike Posner, at the top of the cover and secondly is 31 minutes to takeoff.
• There are also a number of iconic signs included which consists of the photo in general which dennotes him sitting in the aeroplane chair. His clothing in general and the watch we can see on his wirst and his facial expression which involves breaking the forth wall and first person mode of address. The font is also included in this and how it is positioned. His name is in the biggest font, followed by the name of the album underneath. This allows you to start at the top of the cover and follow his name down to the album name and to finish with the picture. The font sames to be of the same regal design which is also in gold, matching the other strong maculine and royal colours of the cover.
• There is little non - representational graphic signs however there is a logo in the middle of the 'o' in his name.

Step 2 -

• The overall image combined with the text adds to the stars meta-narrative and seems to be telling his own story. The idea of him waiting on a plane untill takeoff connotes that he's travelling somewhere for a reason. This may be to leave behind something or someone and the time in hand may be a chance for him to turn back or to decide whether he is making the right decision.
• The fact that his non-verbal language suggests he is unhappy and expresses a degree of uncertainty supports this and this strong first person mode of address intoduces Dyers paradoxes. Although from his gaze it seems like he is looking at you, is close and present at the same time he has nothing to do with you and is abesent to us.

Step 3-

• There are certain social myths and ideologies present in the cover that may appear subtle but do connote some meaning. Firstly his clothing is of a pop star nature as he is wearing a blue leather jacket with one of the sleaves unzipped, revealing his watch connoting a sign of wealth and style. This reinforces the common ideology of popstars being wealthy and therefore being able to afford the latest fashion trends whether it be clothing or accesories to add to their star image.
• The colours in the cover also support this with use of gold and silver and a strong royal blue, again signifies wealth and royalty. The location used in the image adds to this idea as the plane he's on seems to be stylistic and modern suggesting his importance and success.

Step 4-

• This overal image of star quality and wealth is attractive to many of a particular audience. This image relates to his genre of music which is alternate/pop and may encourage people not only to buy in to his music but also to feel like they are buying in to his image when purchasing his album.
• This creates a strong indexical sign and due to the overall representation of fashion, trend and good taste may encourage audiences to believe that by listening to his music and buying his albums allows the atrist and fan to connect and share similar values and beliefs aswell as the style and image that is signified.

EU - Digipak Cover Analysis

• Looking at this album cover you can see two pieces of writing, one is the parental advisory label that is classed as a non-representational graphic sign. the other is the "recovery" album title.
• you can notice that the album dosent even have the name of the artist Eminem on it, this gives him some mystery as you cant see his face and he has no name giving him some sort of super fame and mysterious star image.
• he is so famous that people already know his name. this lack of text says more to the consumer than any other title could.

• Also loking at the recovery text the "o" is a red cross symbol, connnoting something to do with hospitals and health and the "e" is backwards, this could be seen as some sort of way of showing how eminem isnt all there but to people who know eminem they will know he spells his name with backwards "e"s so he is putting his mark on the title.
• the visual is a man who we assume to be Eminem walking down a long empty road, we dont know who the man is but the visual signifier of him being in the far right of the picture shows he has a long way to go and with his back to us it could be seen as part of his "recovery", putting things behind him.

• The indexical sign in this cover is a sort of growing up, walking away from the past and the title recovery shows him recovering from his bad past, fans of Eminem will know about his past and his previous album covers promote violence or the star lifestyle, this is in a non glamourous location and promotes nothing, people buying this will think they are growing up themselves.

EU - Our finished Brighton Shots

As you can see we have been having some trouble with Premiere and this shows in the bpoor quality of our video.

JH- Representation and ideological discourse - Metro station - shake it

The music video i looked at for this was extemely appropriate, both to our genre of music video and location and idea of performance, but also to the idea of representation and ideology.

In this video there is one main social group that is represented which is clearly the generation of youths. In this they are immediately shown to be rebellious by breaking an entry which sets the stage to the video. It is obvious from the costumes of the youths that they are being represented in a negative light and slightly rebelious from all the tattoos, piercings and strange clothing, however at the same time this is the unique style the band is trying to achieve. Already in the opening 30 seconds of the video the characters have been represented in this way and to mst people and ideology would have been formed, which would most likely be negative depending on who you were. For example middle age people watching this music video would associate a group of boys breaking an entry wearing extreme clothing with tattoos and piercings to be trouble and the ideology would most probably be formed around crime and ani social behaviour. However if you were of a similar age to the characters and watching this video, although you may see what their doing to be wrong, you may also find there extreme actions to be cool and exciting rather than just rebellious which is probably what the band have tried to achieve when appealing to that audience.

Within this overall socail group there are also smaller social groups of youths that have split up in to their own styles and beliefs which is interesting. This is mainly shown through costume in the video and how the different groups are weaqring their own outfit. It is also expressed through their style of dance in this case. For example the group of boys dressed inblue tracksuits that are breakdancing could be related to a more lower classed style and have a 'chav' like mannor about them.

There is also a representation of girls in the video which seems to challenge the dominant ideology of girls enjoying more feminine activites rather than illegal and antisocial behaviour. They are also shown to be dancing in the video, at times more so then the male characters, possibly reinforcing a imerging ideology that females are just as out going and extreme in terms of illegal and anti social behaviour as men are.

At the end of the video the police are shown to be chasing the characters out of the assembly hall reinforcing the fact that what they are doing is highly illegal. However at the same time the characters are still shown to be laughing and to get away with the crime which may show how youths are getting away with more and more petty crimes these days which could suggest the imerging ideology of all youths to be over the top, extreme and troublesome.

EU - Representation and ideological discourse

The main stars of our video will my Jack, Ollie and Eddy. All white teenage youths so therefore we arent getting a range of genders, ages or races. we will however not be portraying youths in the way alot of the music industry does with example like jamie T and plan B whose typical "jack the lad" star motif makes the entire youth culture look threatening in some way. this is not helped by the film industry with films like kidulthood and shank putting them in a bad light. we have decided to cast ourselves as grown ups with eddy being a bussiness man and jack and ollie performing their music on a stage. also wearing respectable clothing rather than a tracksuit. when thinking of this idea about "hoodies" i thought of the music video hoodie by lady sovereign in which she mocks the idea of hoodies being threaning and something to be feared. the narrative in this music video is of two posh females being chased through a shopping mall by a large group of hooded youths. the two women expect the worst and run away when it really turned out to be the youths returning her handbag that she had left in a shop earlier on.

When looking at music videos race is not really an issue as it seems the visual is typically a cast filled with all the same ethnicity so therefore i dont think our video will be seen as racist in anyway in this overly politically correct world at the moment.

As part of this research i chose the music video Naive by the kooks because our songs and style are very similar. they are an all white male band of youths as are we so it will be interesting to see how they portrayed their ideologies and representation in the video.

Watching the music video it represented white male youths and one white female youth. the male youths were the ones that came out looking better from the music video. this may be because it was the band and they need to be represented well or because it is some residual ideology of men being better. Another thing i noticed about costume that could help us is the classic rebellion motif of a leather jacket. We know that youths are interested by the classic bad boy image but we want our performance to be civilized so therefore a leather jacket would be ideal for Jack or Ollie to wear.

The girl is represented as a girl who sleeps around and dosent look after herself. there is a part where she stumbles up to a man in a club and gets turned away by him, she then grabs another man and fornication is emplied when they go into the toilet together. an emerging idelogy that young girls are irresponsible with their bodies is prominant here.

OH- Guitar filming

I have found that the video "Dream Catch Me - Newton Faulkner" has used many good shots of him playing the guitar, from panning down the neck, to pull back focus on different parts of the guitar being played, such as strumming and fingering the notes.

What did i find?
I have found that some videos in the past have had bad shots of the guitar being played, and when its played in this genre its about talent, not just looks and a pseudo individualised style of music and an artist that has just had money thrown at him/her. however I believe syncing the guitar perfectly and playing the tune right with the correct shot angles and size will be very effective in making our video look more realistic.

Examples of this?
for example in a video that i had already analysed "newton Faulkner-Dream catch me" I noticed that the guitar shots were very effective when he would strum the guitar and play the notes. Looking down the neck seeing the right hand strumming in focus but the fingers playing the chords out of focus I think could be very effective.

This angle of the guitar strumming as a CU I think is also effective, showing skill, yet if for example there's a bit of the song I cant play properly, the strumming may be a "filler" to some extent encase the situation arises that I cant play a particular bit.

How is the guitar playing different to other genres?
This genre of music has quite a style of playing the guitar to other genres, the guitar is normally held higher, and played often with fingers by finger picking, however with other genres such as metal, the guitar is held far lower and is often but in the background and is made to look darker, where as in the genre of soft rock, its one of the main features and is pronounced in quite a bright light and is very obvious in the video.


What did i learn?
This research has shown me how to play the guitar with keeping with the genre characteristics of the track, this has shown me also that i will most likely need to learn how to play the guitar to a high standard, to not make it look amateur, and to take lots of shots of CU's of the guitar so we can edit them and get rid of the pnes that arent played in time properly.

OH- Representation and ideological discourse, sticks and stones

How i percived the video to show some representations of white teenagers, which are the social groups being represented in our video.

The obvious social group being represented in this music video is teenage white males, the main character is your typical "Jack the Lad", them running threw back alleys may connote that they have been in some trouble, and are running away not to get caught. Smoking normally connotes rebellion, in the video you can clearly see the Jamie T Smoking whilst sitting down in his back garden. this reinforces the idea that whilst there running threw the alleys there running away from someone because they have caused some type of trouble because of their rebellious nature.

There is a cut to Jamie T with a group of similar age boys in what appears to be a car park behind a warehouse, not your average place to hang out, this could imply that they are trying not to get noticed or be seen, possibly because there doing something illegal? Already in the video its apparent that there is quite a negative view that had been portrayed on young white males, if you look at it in a politically correct view, there not conforming to society. however to some people who think this is admirable behaviour they somewhat come over as role models, which could be quite a bad influence on our future generations.

Throwing a cup of a milkshake across the platform shows antisocial behaviour, and putting his fingers up, shows his unconformity to the way he is suppose to act in modern society. The ideology that all teenage white males are trouble makers and ravel in antisocial behaviour is being reinforced here, the video shows unconformity to society, rebellion and anti social behaviour which is exactly what stereotype is being portrayed by the teens in the video. for example when they all smash a window, possibly because there drunk since they have been shown to be drinking beer and seem intoxicated, this reinforces the negative ideology of teens being involved in anti sociable behaviour.

Why are these representations and ideologies relevant to our research?

Although the general behaviours of the teens shown in this video arent what we are aiming to portray in our video, the reason that i chose this track is because all of the cast is teenage white males, which is the exact same cast that we will be using in our video.
The general stereotypes portrayed on young people are reinforced in this video, however in our video we wish to challenge these ideologies and show how not all teenagers are yobs, and that some have different opinions on how they portray themselves to society and dont want to be part of the stereotype placed on them, we hope to show this by the performance being emotional and well acted showing tallent and also in our narrative, of going to work, conforming to the rules of society.

EU - Shooting the narrative

We have a recurring problem that we are going to face with our narrative because we have a specific shot we want to create with Eddy walking against a rush hour crowd on london bridge. this will be hard to make sure no one looks at the camera and we get the right flow of people. looking at the video "Bluey robinson - gotta be a way" they overcame this problem by cutting between two of the same shots which meant that if something were to go wrong they could cut to the other shot of the same image therefore missing out the thing that went wrong.

Taking this into account we need to be careful when shooting that we do it subtly as people may react to seeing our camera and ruin our shoot. we want to do it differently to this bluey robinson shot however and have quite a long shot to show more of whats happening.




CU of singer, cut to
POV shot of the rush hour, cut back to
CU of singer

OH- Lighting analysis

Since my technical analysis of "Many of Horror" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mAh--lH0H3U&ob=av3e i have been inspired to use a spotlight in our video and think that it would be very effective in our performance piece, these were my ideas.


I have found that a spotlight can be very effective in performance videos, having a bright light in shot then as a pan left or something like that, and it gets blocked out by a head, then comes back into shot, like in the video many of horror, creates a good amount of shadow on the face, and adds emotion to the performance.

How it could add to our video...
Bright lights used in silhouette shots are also very effective in this video, creating a man with a guitar silhouette is very efective, for example during a guitar solo.

How do other appropriate genres connote emotion with lighting?
i also think quite a few heavier/ emo videos use lighting to connote depression and sadness. this could be very effective since we are trying to connote emotions. for example between angles and insects, in the opening there is a green wash on the music video, this with a good use of shadow conotes darkness, which could be effective in our video.