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

Throughout the entire Research and Planning, Production and Evaluation, the main technology used has been the blog. This has been used to link youtube videos to my planning, to analyse existing videos such as here and it is always public and up-to-date online rather than repeatedly uploading power-points or documents once they have been updated. It is also much more simple and easier to navigate.

This has also been used in conjunction with social-networking using www.twitterfeed.com to link my Twitter account and automatically tweet updates from my blog to my twitter followers such as the examples below. This has been an attempt to broaden the viewers of my blog to get a wider range of audience and the feedback. Social networks have been utilised throughout the course of the research, planning, production and evaluation to obtain feedback and to improve the overall look of the coursework pieces.

To obtain the footage and images for this coursework, I used a Canon HD camcorder and a DSLR camera, which was shown here. Afterwards, in the post-production stages, a mac was used in conjunction with editing software, Adobe Photoshop and Premiere Pro to edit the ancillary products and music video respectively.

This includes:

Using photoshop and layers to create a pixelated view of the earth, using only multicoloured squares and a grid within photoshop;

Using a combination of the magnetic lasso, eraser/magic eraser and a number of brightness and contrast layers to achieve a very dark, but not fully black silhouette of the band members. This was repeated on each of the images on the digipak and poster. This was used to continue the representation of the enigma or introvert characteristics of the performers.

Here's an example on how I applied the equaliser to my music track, placing a variation on the classic "V" equaliser associated with most rock artists to bring out the bass and treble of the track, while "scooping" the middle tone to allow the vocals to cut through the mix, differentiating from the other parts of the song not sounding "muddy" - too much middle tone - or "tinny", with too much high end. I used this as it is synonymous with the rock genre and it was important for the music to sound the best possible.

Below are several different examples of the tools I have used in my video to edit. For fades I have used the pen tool to create a change in opacity (seen to the right) which appears as a basic fade out once completed. It was used primary as a way to convey the passage of time or simply a slower transition to the next scene and also used to layer two images on top of each other, a variation of cross cutting, showing simultaneous actions at the same time rather than separate scenes.






On the right shows an example of the radial wipe and how I've used keyframes and feathering to achieve the clock wipe similar to that seen in the Star Wars franchise which creates the effect of the passage of time but also further establishes the intertextuality present in the video. This was used to further establish the idea of the brand identity, albeit leaving the identity a mystery, which by association created a "culture" that the persona and the band revolve themselves around.





These next screenshots explain the different ways in which I have removed, replaced or altered the colour of the music video with the top most picture showing the black and white, comic-strip effect, akin to silent film and the second picture showing how I have used basic chroma key, replacing the green-shirt green screen to red or blue dependant on which chorus it is in the song. This last, final image represents how I've touched up certain colours to compensate for any poor lighting that was present when filming. The colour was often used as a way to right what was wrong when filming or to create a unrealistic setting for the characters world. This is because my main intention to audiences is for viewers to use my video as a form of escapism. This, along with the idea of the enigma code, was my preferred meaning.

3) What Have you Learnt from your Audience Feedback?

Firstly, here's a link to my audience research identifying my target audience... (Identifying audiences...)
However... My audience has changed slightly because the overhaul with the narrative and video designs. First of all the audience will remain students of the socio-economic table value of E; aged 16-24 but the gender has altered slightly. Because no female roles are present in the actual video, the target gender is more male-based but to take the focus from this, I have used an enigma, removing a relatable face to the artist and protagonist to tailor to neither audience in particular. This is because I believe that the interests in gaming and "geekery" is the essential part of my audiences interest but within this audience are the subgenre's with different sexualities, genders, ethnicities - despite the general stereotype of the geek - that of a white, western heterosexual male of christian or atheist faith. I personally want to detach the word geek from this stereotype and broaden it to those who also label themselves as geeks. This audience can also be considered active or interactive audiences for music, as they are actively watching the video and decoding the meaning behind the lyrics and the video. This is linked to Stuart Hall's theory of Encoding and Decoding a meaning and that the passive audience no longer exists due to this. The socio-economic values of the Survivor and Explorers remain as the centre-piece to the video but the Use and Gratifications changes completely as it conforms to Escapism, Personal Identity and Surveillance as the imagination involved in decoding the narrative.

Now, above are examples of my ancillary products as they have developed. They are heavily focused on video games and intertextual references including a loading bar made with tetrominoes which was originally implemented into the I Fight Dragons logo but was removed after feedback from my teacher and fellow students saying it was "unreadable" from a distance of about 5 metres, so it isn't able to be read, which it needs to stand out from a distance. I also subverted conventions associated with music magazines which I researched last year to use a Blue/White/MidnightPurple colour scheme over the basic Red/White/Black colour scheme akin to rock music. The multi-coloured tetrominoes are part of the band logo and brand identity in this case.

Audience feedback / Questionnaire results

Here are examples of my progression of my feedback as the coursework has progressed over the year. From this, I decided to vary the shots a little from just simple mid shots  as, although sticking to my themes of the video, it seemed a little too repetitive to the audience. I've also received "likes" on Facebook which while was no actual constructive criticism, does give me a glimpse of my audience as all but one person falls into my primary and secondary audience. Only two people from my secondary audience has given feedback and only one of my primary audience (16-19 year olds) was female, as had been already predicted that the audience was to be male dominant.

Through my feedback I have decided to alter several key things of the overall products. First of all my feedback had requested for a variety of shots and as result I introduced several new shots such as the over the shoulder shot which implemented a high angle; a handful of different master shots and varied transitions to split up the boring long shots.

For the ancillary products, my audience research and feedback dictated that the original planned font wasn't readable from more than 2 metres away; for this reason I kept the planned colours but used block colour instead of the tetromino blocks of colour. My research revealed that film, TV and games were the second largest interests after music. This was reflected with my music video focusing on the music over narrative albeit with intertextual references while inversely my digipak employed a more artificial feel with the pixelated images and silhouettes. This also is due to the majority of my audience claiming to prefer "unrealistic" ideas which are represented with the face on the earth. This is all relevant to the artist brand which more than 50% of my audience declared was most important; not the narrative.

2) How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

First of all I have established the house style with the square/retro typeface and taken the colour scheme of Red, Blue and Green that I established from the Legend of Zelda series which was elaborated for the ancillary products. I added the extra colours for the use of the tetrominoes and incorporated this into the design of the poster and the colours were taken into account to be used in the band logo. This colour scheme loosely links all three of the coursework pieces but the digipak and poster are intended to oppose the video as they are contrasting as while the video is mostly normal and looks like a down to earth place while the album represents a game-style, 8 bit world. 

Final coursework pieces

The characters are the same within the products as they are an enigma and can be deciphered as the audience chooses, being an "avatar" for themselves within the video. The band is also the same band featured on the ancillary products so it is a direct link between the two. The themes of the video are linked but the aesthetics of the video and ancillaries are separate.

As for a brand identity, I have strayed away from the creation of a star through the enigma code. By subverting Richard Dyer's star theory, I have allowed my video to focus on the music rather than the performers, however I have created the culture in which the star may have been represented. Mise-en-Scene has been heavily focused on the intertextuality towards cult interests like Sci-fi and Video Games. For this reason I have placed game controllers, video game characters and actual games within the video and also borrowing the circular wipe from George Lucas' Star Wars saga. There is a clear link between the fonts of each product with the same image of the 8-bit Earth being depicted in the digipak and the video and the fonts "Karmatic Arcade" ; "Minecrafter 2.0" and "Minecraftia" used from Dafont.com which all give the effect of a pixelated bitmap font, akin to 1980s/1990s video games.

I have used this because of similar brand identity I researched in my product research such as the Muse album and the existing products of I Fight Dragons such as the consistency of the logo for The Resistance between the album and poster. However these are not consistent themes with the music video such as how in I Fight Dragon's work how their actual front cover is pixelated yet their videos have varied from claymation and live-action videos. I used this idea to create a consistent iconography but not clear visual link between the coursework pieces

Media Coursework: MISS-ION A-COMP-LISHED

So here we are, the grand finale! It's all complete. Leave any comments and feedback below!


So most notably between this and the first cut are the addition of additional shots of the video game controllers which help to cut up longer shots which my audience stated in feedback became boring due to their length. I also added the over the shoulder shot of the persona playing games and the "Game Over" part at the end of the video to further add to the iconography of the piece. The poster and digipak on the other hand have remained pretty similar to their original first draft but replacing the stock photos with actual images that I have used a magnetic lasso and brightness and contrast filters - instead of black and white - to achieve this silhouette effect. This was to give more depth in the black ness than the simple flat silhouette produced by the black and white filter.

~ Jack ~

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

Following one of the few ideas I initially had and kept, I removed the use of voyeurism from the music video because it didn't fit with my general stereotype of the "geek". I also feel that as it is aimed at teenagers and young adults it is a bad influence and an incorrect representation of actual people. This discards a one of six of Andrew Goodwin's conventions of music videos. This video however does conform to his conventions as there are relationships between the lyrics and visuals, as it reveals the actual lyrics on screen and the vocals are in sync with the vocalists mouth. Intertexual references and iconography form the bulk of my videos conventional use and the music and the visual are consistent with each other through the displaying of instruments being played. Star image in the form of close-up shots are used to an extent but are developed to be used in an alternate way.

 My reasonings to focus on the mouth over the whole face, is because this focuses metaphorically on the voice and not the context of the person. This subverts Richard Dyer's findings through Star Image Theory that the brand of the artist appears more prominent. This was inspired by the AS Media Studies regarding independent labels, which is what I Fight Dragons were signed to, at the beginning of my coursework (they have no record signing at the current moment of writing).

throughout the video there are allusions to other media texts such as the bow tie which can be linked to Doctor Who; comic-book panels; video game references like the Zelda colour usage  (mentioned here) by the protagonists. This also shows an example of the clock/radial wipe, which was first popularly used in the Star Wars franchise (see below)

The Enigma code is a technique used generally in TV and film to mystify and intrique the audience which I have developed for my music video by never really revealing the artist in the music video as a way of letting the audience fabricate both the narrative and the protagonist from their own personal experiences due to my personal reasons believing imagination is a very powerful source of emotion.

My media product typically subverts to Andrew Goodwin's music video conventions, but not in a strictly conventional way as the close-ups are used but are changed slightly to extreme close-ups. This developing of conventions, conforms to Steve Neale's theory of "repetition and difference"within conventions to subtly create something unique but not being outlandish in style. However, as I have borrowed conventions from Film, particularly the captions and enigma code from Film Noir and silent film, parts of this music video conform to Rick Altman's theory that hybridisation is the way forward with genre. As most of the video is not black and white with captions however, one would class my video as conforming to Steve Neale's theory, simply developing music video conventions such as the removal of voyeurism and the cropping of a close-up to achieve the ECU and also removing emotion, subverting audience expectations.

As for the ancillary products, my poster and digipak are less conventional due to the very artificial look and style of it. The only noticeable convention used is that of layout conventions, using the rules of thirds, playing on the idea of the three band members and the three colours within the music video. Both the poster and digipak were loosely influenced by Muse's resistance album which can be seen here taking on board the circular image as the Primary Optical focus and underlining important parts of the product such as the title.

First Cut.

Pre-evaluation... Quick summary.

So after weeks of racking my brains, here are the final main themes and ideas that are being put into filming...

First of all I am sticking with the idea of no voyeurism and the idea of personal growth, to achieve this I am portraying the band and the protagonist through one person, but never revealing the face to produce an enigma, which I have borrowed from the conventions of movies. I have coupled this with an inspiration I have drawn from Shigeru Miyamoto and Eiji Aonuma, the main people behind the Legend of Zelda game series.

In The Legend of Zelda, the main character, Link is named because of his connection between the audience and the game. Link is voiceless because he is intended to be an avatar for the audience. Following from this, I intend my protagonist and artist to be a "link" between the audience and the music.

Furthermore, the band consists of three members, dressed in red, blue and green. In the zelda universe, there is a sacred relic called the Triforce. One of each of the triangles grant power, wisdom and courage respectively and are related to the Goddesses and their respective colours Din (Red) , Nayru (Blue) and Farore (Green). When all three are united it is considered the ultimate power within the series.

The protagonist is portrayed wearing each of these colours throughout the video. Through this I am trying to symbolise how the protagonist is achieving personal growth. This all ties into the idea of gaining greatness and "The Geeks Will Inherit the Earth". Also the "power" persona can be considered most significant of the band with the guitar while the "wisdom" and "courage" persona are less significant and the most significant character, the singer, is shown with no obvious colour.