Evaluation

1. In what ways does your Media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
‘Kicking Up Dust’ by ‘Fitzwilliam and the Spitfires’ incorporates many of the conventions used by real media texts; an example of this being the song’s indie genre characteristics. The song is in the vein of a traditional love song, revolving around the theme of heartache and loves journey. We wanted our video to have a sombre feel in order to reflect that. We also felt that our video should have a straightforward narrative style, as again, this is a common element within most mainstream music videos. We discovered much of this through various forms of research. Such as, looking at the work of other indie bands and how they present themselves and their work, looking at various music videos on YouTube, as well as looking at a few production techniques we wished to explore.
The theme of a relationship breaking up is evident within the song, and this is a common form within many music videos, although we have tried to challenge traditional conventions through our use of two homosexual protagonists and our demonstration of the break- up of their relationship. We did some research on YouTube looking for other music videos which demonstrated gay relationships, and the closest we found was ‘Lady Gaga’s’ ‘Telephone’ featuring ‘Beyonce’, where a lesbian relationship is hinted at. This inspired us to develop our portrayal of a gay couple as we had been encouraged by our chosen band to make something a little bit different. We could also perhaps suggest that the gay relationship adds a post modern element to our video, as we have chosen to interpret the song in that way and also because it represent a modern element of society.
The chorus line of ‘Kicking up dust on the way behind me, as I focused on the track...’ clearly indicated that a journey is, key to the whole song, so we centred our video around the journey that love takes our two characters on. It conforms to conventions used by real media texts as it shows a relationship between the lyrics and visual elements of the video. We researched other videos that depicted journeys, ‘Take That’s’ ‘Greatest Day’ video was particularly good as it illustrated aspects of a journey, and used seamless transitions in order to portray this. This was an element that we ourselves had considered as we felt it would emphasise the journey that the character was taking and improve the flow of the video. We then researched the use of this seamless cutting technique and found a collection of media with ‘invisible’ transitions, including the opening sequence to ITV’s Doc Martin series.
The practicality of doing all of the invisible transitions differed from what I had originally planned in the script and animatic storyboard, but a fair few of them were easily producible. This way of using cuts isn’t unheard of in music videos, but it is uncommon, a majority will have straight cuts, but I felt that by using this type of editing it would not only emphasise the journey aspect of the video, but add some excitement to the piece.
We also decided that we wanted the video to have a reminiscent theme to it, so we see the main character reminiscing upon his broken relationship. For example, when the character walks into the camera a white transition is used, this is supposed to give the illusion of the camera entering the characters mind, showing the audience how he has come to walk this lonely path.

2. How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
Our ancillary tasks have changed several times over the period of producing the music video. The main reason was we felt they just weren’t working and we weren’t happy with them.
They went from computer images:
CD
DVD
Magazine

To sketches:

CD
DVD cover

Magazine
To our final ancillaries:

CD cover

CD insert

DVD cover

Magazine advert

We did decide to go for a slightly different angle with the ancillaries’ compared to the main theme of journey within the video, we liked the idea of the characters each loosing half of them self when they broke up. I decided that the best way to portray this would be by showing only half of their faces on the texts; we were trying to emphasise that the two characters did not really want to split up- we took this idea from a line in the song ‘’if you don’t want me to go, why don’t you join me?’’.
The theme does still relate to the video though, in the last scenes we see half of Jack’s face and half of Alec’s face, this was to show that the song was nearly at its end, and the characters were about to depart from one another; with showing half of their face on camera, hopefully, making the audience realise that the pain of leaving one another is cutting them in half. No other shots in the video show half a characters face, implying that this really is the end for them.
The CD cover shows this idea very well, when opened fully the half faces join to become a full face, making them whole again.
The magazine advert also falls to the idea above, but is presented to the audience as a mystery; the two shoulders touching should hopefully give an indication that the two know each other, but the fact the each man only has half his face on show, should, optimistically, make the audience wonder what’s going on. The advert is very simple, perhaps too simple, with not enough information on it, but we didn’t want a messy looking poster, we were aiming for something simplistic but eye catching.
The DVD case shows that it is Alec who is leaving Jack, and with Jack in the background, it emphasises the idea that they don’t really want to be break up. We got the idea for this picture from a line in the song ‘’but I’m too scared to look back’’. Originally we were going to go for the half face idea again, but I felt that it would be too repetitive, when there were so many other potentials within the song, that would make a great DVD case. Besides it keeps with the theme of journey, as Alec is walking away from Jack, and essentially away from his former life. The back of the DVD case is meant to reinforce the idea that the character is on a journey that he has to go on, so much so, he has walked through the viewer and emerged the other side (on the back of the case); relating to the video very much.
So, the ancillary’s main task we believed was to try and portray a relationship breaking up against both men’s wishes, I think that the DVD cover does this best. But once you’ve seen the music video then the other two become a lot more apparent.

3. What have you learnt from your audience feedback?
We have learnt a lot from our audience feedback and received plenty of positive feedback on our video. After working to complete our rough cut we showed it to several people to see what they thought. All of those we showed it to enjoyed it but a few changes were suggested, such as polishing a few cuts and perhaps rethinking one piece of footage. So we took these suggestions and worked on them along with our own ideas to straighten out the glitches in our video.

4. How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?
We used a lot of new media technologies in the process of producing our music video; YouTube was key to our whole research and planning, we looked up many music videos to gain or develop our ideas. Through facebook we were able to show our video to others gaining valuable audience feedback, also via this media we were able to present our finished product to our band. By using our blogs we could regularly log and update our work, also giving us the opportunity to display our videos (animatic, rough cut, music video and commentary) and ancillary tasks. We used Adobe editing software on the schools computers; it enabled us to create the feel and look within the shots that we wanted. The memory aspect of the video meant that in many frames the main character had to be duplicated doing different things; this to begin with was a challenge, but we soon worked out how to get this result. In creating our ancillary tasks I used a series of computer programmes; Paint, Microsoft Word and Publisher, and Photoshop.

New Ancillarys

Feeling that our ancillaries just weren't working, we decided to change them:

CD cover

CD insert

DVD cover

Magazine Advert

These we felt fit in with our music video much much better. It kept to our on going themes, such as the main characters 'loosing half of themselevs' during the split- which is portrayed in the magazine advert and the CD cover, and the DVD cover keeps with the theme of journey.

Video Commentary

Final Final Cut!

Final Cut

Rough Cut

Summary so far......

After having several problems with our group, with one member leaving, Paul and I have had our work cut out to catch up. The digi-pack which our third member was in charge of was nowhere near completed, so after designing the CD cover, and the DVD case- the magazine advert was the only one that was completed- i set about making them in Paint and Microsoft Word;
Front of CD cover

Back of CD cover

Magazine Advert

DVD cover

I'm not completely sure what compelled me to do this one in black and white; the only reason i can think of is, its to show that relationships aren't black and white. There are other factors present which determine it's outcome.

Inspiration!

This is additional research to that of our pitches;
In this CD cover I liked how the eye took up the whole image. It gave me the idea of putting the man inside the girl’s eye. This is to show that the man is trapped in the girls ‘mind’s eye’, so even though she won’t go with him, she still thinks about him a lot.


Even though this is a Playstation game case, I liked how only half of the man’s face was shown. It linked to one of my ideas for a shot in the video; by only showing half of the man and woman’s face in the last scenes, when they go their separate ways, it could show that by leaving each other they are also leaving half of themselves behind. Give the impression that they don’t really want to part, but they feel that they have to, hence the line in the song “at least I know I died on the road”; showing that if they don’t split then the man will forever regret his decision.


With our complications of getting everyone together at the same time, we had to make a strange compromise, a boy playing the girls part. Not only does it make the words sung in the song not relate, but also the images featured in the digi-pack are now ‘wrong’, so to speak. But the original concept of a couple splitting up, with the theme of abstract, is still there; and I believe that by creating a music video about a homosexual relationship is entering the realms of postmodernism, and also hitting the mark of the abstract theme, as the gay relationship depicted with in the video goes against preconceived notions and conventions of the typical romantic genre.

Also during filming I found that some of the shots I wanted were too technical and could have become too time consuming for the amount of time we had. So my idea of there being no cuts in the video until the last few shots, showing that the relationship had ended for good, has gone. Some of the transitions are still there. But I feel I have lost some of the seamless flow of the journey the man is on.

Stills of Music Video

Finally, after about a billion years of planning and trying to sort out a time when both the actors were free; and then having to make a compromise with a boy playing the girl character; effectively creating a music video about a homosexual relationship, we have filmed our film.
The stills below are key scenes in the video:

This is the first shot we see of the man. We tried to create a sense of isolation and loneliness with the tall dominating trees, and a long deserted path into the unknown; also the fact that he is a lone figure quite small in a big setting promotes this idea.


At this point, the singer is well on his way to forgetting the boy, but like everything, to forget we have to remember. So in this scene we are travelling with him through his memories.
The angling of the shot is to allow us to do split screen.


This shot uses the road with the vanishing point. We plan to have Jack disappear half way through Alec’s walk to show that the man is nearly ready to move on from him.

Location Planning

Armed with a camera, we ventured out into the bitter cold winters air in search of locations we wished to film in.

This path lined with trees was perfect for the metaphorical road/journey we wanted our singer to embark upon. Its positioning was isolated (except the lovely woman and her dog we can see in the background, but fortunately she wasn’t a permanent feature), and it was only a short walk from college


This bridge is meant to represent how the man/singer is running away or over looking his problems; the boy being his problem, hence why he is walking over the bridge to get away from his lover. It also adds to his journey; though the railings either side are keeping him ‘in’ showing that he is still confined to a set track, even though it is a different one to the one he was following.


The over grown hedging at both sides of the fences are meant to portray the singer blocking the boy from his mind. Hence the fences are barriers for keeping thoughts of him at bay; as he has refused to join him on his journey, and he feels he has to leave.


This road- though not easily seen in this photo- has a vanishing point. In this location we plan to have the man walking into frame representing a new beginning

Emma and Pauls Animatic Story Board

I have been looking up transitions from other music videos to get inspiration and ideas for ours.
So far I have found a couple that feature the transitions which we want to use. Katie Melua's 'Nine Million Bicycles' uses transitions like we want. For example, when she is dragged under a table, she emerges the other side in a different place to the one she started in.

Another example is the opening sequence to Doc Martin. The camera passes infront of rocks and cliffs, leading to different locations.

The Pet Shop Boys in their song 'Go West' have a section (1:14- 1:20 seconds) where the use of a flag creates a transition to another shot.
Take That's 'Patience' has the theme of a journey, which links to our theme, also the deserted places they walk through

The Next Tv Advert 2009, also features transitions like i want:

Music Video Script

In the introduction to the first verse we see a birds-eye view of a man walking down a long isolated road; to try and implant the feeling that the man is lonely and on a journey to a destination he’s not sure of, hence the long road with what seems no ending. The camera then, after about 5 seconds, starts to swoop down in a slow 45 degree turn to the right, this then becomes stationary when the man’s whole body is in view. While this is happening he has sung the first line of the song.
The man is continually walking, and line two verses one sees him walking towards the stationary camera. Line three verses one sees the man walking ‘into’ the camera, thus creating a transition to shot five. To where the camera pans backwards ‘out of the man’s back’ and rises to an eye-level view of the man’s head. The camera then pans left in a circular motion to show the man’s face; while he’s singing line four and five verses one of the song. From this position the camera zooms out (shot six) to shot seven, where we can see all the man’s body as he walks along a road at the same time as he’s singing line six verses one. As the camera zooms, a tree passes in front, making a transition to shot nine.
Shot nine sees him as he walks out from behind a tree; the setting is a playing field with play equipment, to the man’s right is an image of him and his girlfriend swinging on the swing, as he’s walking he temporally blocks them from view, and when he’s moved we see that the two are no longer there; as this is happening the man is singing line one and two of verse two. A football is then kicked in front of the camera, creating a transition to shot twelve.
In this shot the man is walking down a corridor, and on his right is an image of him and his girlfriend cuddling, as he is walking he obstructs the view of them from the camera, and when he’s gone we see that they are no longer there, as we see in shot thirteen; as this is happening he is singing line three of verses two of the song.
When we use this effect of him and his girlfriend disappearing while he’s on his journey, we are trying to show how he is pushing her from his life. By using him as a block to the camera for the ‘happy couple’ to vanish, we hope to portray that this split up between the two is his doing; he is the one who is pushing her out of his life.
The transaction between shot thirteen and fifteen is students walking past the camera (shot fourteen); in shot fifteen, as the students have finished walking past, the scene has changed to a woody field where the man is continuing on his journey. He then walks past a bush (shot sixteen) and reappears in shot seventeen emerging from a bush at the bottom of a bridge. During this he has sung line four of verses two.
As he starts up the bridge in shot seventeen he is singing line five of verse two. As he approaches the top of the bridge, while singing line six of verse two, camera is at a low angle, so much so that when he gets closer the camera only focuses on his feet, this then becomes the transaction to shot twenty, where the camera pans up from his feet to show a different setting.
The use of these transactions is to create smooth transitions between different shots, to emphasis the fact he is on a continual journey. By doing this, instead of cuts, we are exploring the band’s preference of ‘abstract’, as well as the theme of ‘the break up’. It’s abstract because normally if you walk behind a tree you come out at the same location, but by making the character emerge at different ones makes the music video different to a vast majority of them.
Shot twenty sees the man singing line one of verses three, in this scene we see him walking past him and his girlfriend arguing. The fact that they are arguing links into the lyrics of the song “Shakes her head, she’s not gunna join me”. The camera has panned up from his feet to show an over-the-shoulder shot of the two in disagreement, the camera then pans left around the man’s head so we see his face, while at the same time he’s singing line two of verse three. Then it pans backwards, so the man is getting further way, but he is still continually walking (shot twenty-one) whilst singing line three and four of verse three. A car in shot twenty-two, then drives in front of him, making a transition to shot twenty-three, where the man comes out walking up a road. The camera has a side view of the man, it then zooms out and round so, again, the man is in full front view of the camera. As the man is walking, the camera keeps the same difference away. (While this is happening he has sung line five and six of verses three.) But then it stops and as he gets closer the camera pans down, so eventually the pavement is in view. This then creates the transition to shot twenty-six.
Twenty-six sees him walking up from a hill on a road. The camera is low angled, and, as a result of this positioning we see his head appearing first. This links in with our abstract and break-up theme; in film this technique is sometimes used to show the hero/s coming home from battle, creating a sense of joy and relief. But because we are using this at a part in the song where he sings “if I was wrong, I didn’t know all I should have know, at least I know I died on the road”, instead of creating feelings of happiness, we are trying to make the audience feel uneasy.
When the man approaches the camera, as the camera is now stationary, he walks over it, but as he does this, the camera follows him, rotating 180 degrees in a swoop. So in shot twenty-nine we see that the image of the man walking away is upside down. The camera tracks him upside down until he walks over a wall and the camera goes ‘into’ the wall creating a transition to shot thirty-one, where it pans out at eye-level from the side of the building, to show the man standing in a busy street as people walk around him.
Here we are hoping to speed up the pace of the shot. This would hopefully show that the man is discontent with his life; everyone else is going about their business, but he is just stationary in the life he is leading at the moment; emphasising the issue that he wants to leave, as the song has been suggesting throughout.
The transition to shot thirty-two is in the form of a bag, a woman walks past the camera, and her bag brushes into it (shot thirty-one A). The camera then pans out from the bag, which we now see is hung on a hook in a house, and tracks a woman opening the door, finishing in a over-the-shoulder shot showing the man walking up the drive. When the door opens the man starts singing line one and two of verses five. The man approaches the door, the camera pans to a side view of the couple, and the woman goes to embrace him, but he ignores her and bends down to pick up a rucksack, showing in shot thirty-three and thirty-three A. The camera then pans round to face the woman with an over the shoulder view. But then as the man turns round the camera keeps it over-the-shoulder view, so we see half of the man’s face and the woman in the background standing at the door. Then we use the first cut of the video, to cut to an over-the-shoulder view of the woman’s face, so we see half of her face, who has now turned round so her back is to the man.
This use of seeing half of each characters face is to link the CD and DVD cover and magazine into the video. Also it’s to try and show that even though he has left her, he didn’t really want to, but he felt he had to; so they both have lost their ‘other half’. During this he has sung the last lines of the song. And the last shot is over the camera backing out of the door and the woman closing on the camera, implying finality on their relationship.

Our song is called 'Kicking up dust'.
The Lyrics are as follows:

-The song starts with a 10 second guitar intro, and then goes into...-

Verse One:- (Lyrics start at 11 seconds in, and the verse stops at 40secs)
Kicking up dust on the way behind me
As I focused on the track
I think it’s time that I was leaving
There’s no way of way of coming back
So if I fail, I never go where I wanted to go
At least I know I died on the road

(A 3 second guitar interval is then played before the start of the next verse)

Verse Two:- (Lyrics start at 43secs, and the verse stops at 1:11secs)
Hear her voice going behind me…
…..And I’m too scared to look back
If you don’t want me to go, why don’t you join me?
It’s kinda lonely beside these tracks
So if I fail, I never go where I wanted to go
At least I know I died on the road

(A 3 second guitar interval is then played before the start of the next verse)

Verses Three:- (Lyrics start at 1:14 secs, and the verse stops at 1:43secs)
Shakes her head, she’s not guna join me
But she’s built too much to leave
I wave good bye, I keep on walking
Another mile and I can breathe
So if I fail, I never go where I wanted to go
At least I know I died on the road

(A 3 second guitar interval is then played before the start of the next verse)

Verses Four:- (Lyrics start at 1:47secs, and the verse finishes at 1:54secs)
If I was wrong, I didn’t know all I should have known
At least I know the answers weren’t at home

(A longer guitar interval is now being played, lasting 24 seconds)

Verses Five:- (Lyrics start at 2:18, and the verse stops at 2:40secs), (This verse includes some interval guitar sections init)
If I fail I never go where I wanted to go
At least I know I died on the road………
……If I fail I never go where I wanted to go
Either way I have nothing to show, (After this line the song then continues for 3 seconds with a guitar pieces then fades out and the song is finished), (Song finish at 2:43secs)

This is a rough idea of how we want our CD cover to look. The picture fading from white links to the 'I'm missing you' photo shown in my previous blog. The image of the man in the woman's eye relates to our music video, its to symbolise the feeling that the woman doesn't want the man to leave her, so she's locked him in her minds eye. He'll always be with her in memory even if not in person.

We've been in contact with our band, but sadly they can't meet us, so we've had to send them our pitches via email.

In their reply, they said that they liked the idea of 'the break up' but they would prefer it if some aspects of 'the Abstract' pitch could be incorporated into the final idea.

The band especially liked one of Lee's sample pictures:

They asked if we could do something like this but with the theme of 'the break up'. Fitz liked the way that only some body parts showed through the balls, giving the impression that either someones hiding (hiding from their ex-partner) or something/ones buried (burying the past).

A picture they also liked was:

They said they liked the background, and how the black changes to grey. Fitz said that it represented how a person might feel after a relationship has ended.

So, now we know what the band want, we can finally start working on the final product.

We have finally come up with our three pitches. To begin with we were planning to go down a completely different route with our ideas; by this I mean we were going to base our pitches on certain aspects of the song, be it words like ‘lonely’ or feelings like ‘trapped’. But we felt our designs for the pitches didn’t really represent the song to its full potential.
Instead of us all trying to come up with the same pitch, we decided to do one each, and after long deliberation we settled on doing two pitches that symbolized a literal representation of the song, but from different view points, and the third pitch to be abstract, while still with our theme of relationships. My pitch is ‘The Break Up’, while Paul’s is ‘The Make-up’ and Lee’s is abstract. To come up with ideas for my pitch I listened to the song again and then searched the internet for pictures that I could use- using key words- to show where I was thinking of going with it. For example;



With this picture I liked how the background was faded into two different pictures, and the theme of dull sombre colours; which I thought could be good representation for how the man may be feeling after his break up.

After doing this, I put together a short leaflet with my ideas, so I could refer back to it while presenting the pitch.

With all of our pitches done we need to try and find a time when we can pitch our ideas to our band.

30.09.2009

(Morning lesson)
We were shown previous students work of music videos to help us get more ideas of what we should be looking for and doing. One was a narrative, while the other was a montage. Originally before this I was set on doing a narrative text, but on seeing the student’s film, I am now wondering if a montage would have more effect, based on the atypical manner we want to achieve from ours. This I put across to my partners, but both still liked the narrative idea. So to compromise we have come to a decision that we will use both types.

(Afternoon lesson)
We started by listening to our chosen song. The narrative of the song is of a man who wants to go and do things his girlfriend/wife doesn’t want him to do, but he goes anyway with the suggestion if he doesn’t go he will regret it for the rest of his life. This is something he needs to try no matter what.
From this we wrote down what we thought were key words which we could focus our pitches around. These are what we came up with;
· Dust
· Leaving
· Time
· Failing to do what you want to do- go places
· Her voice behind him
· Too scared to look back
· Lonely
· Died on the road
· Waves
· Walking
· Nothing
The first word that jumped out at us was ‘Lonely’. We brainstormed a few rough and basic ideas;
- A montage of a man walking down deserted roads and through fields
- A montage of how his life used to be
Because this narrative is quite a strong one (the meaning is clear) we have found that this isn’t to our advantage as we thought previously it might. As if our text is too abstract it won’t fit into the song, so we’ve had to rein in on how ‘wacky’ we want to be so the video ‘makes sense’.

29.09.2009

I was ill this day.

25.09.2009

Today we worked on out pitches.
We wrote an email to .......................... the band’s song we have chosen to use;

Hi there (:

For our A Level Media project this year, we have to produce a promotional 'pack' for a local band. A part of this project requires us to film a music video for one of the band's songs. On top of this we'll be creating a possible CD cover/website homepage/magazine advertisement. Shaun (Cuthill) recommended you as a possible lead and we heard one of your songs, Nothing to Show and we'd really like to use this as part of our coursework - with your permission :)

A requirement of the project is that we have to make 3 different pitches for the music video, one of which will go on to be filmed and produced. We'd like your input into which of the 3 you'd prefer us to use.

If you could give us a quick message back at some point soon - that would be awesome. Thanks in advance!

Emma, Lee & Paul.

:D

The reason we chose the song..............was because it is catchy, it could have several meanings, and we could go in many directions with the narrative. The words could have several meanings, enabling us to make our text abstract, not face value. We all felt that we could get unusual and interesting images for the CD cover, magazine cover and website homepage; giving us the edge from other groups.

24.09.2009

Still today we were having no luck with trying to see who owned the song we liked. So we decided to put that on a back burner, until we were at home and had full internet access.
Instead we looked on u-tube (on Lee’s laptop) for inspiration on how we would make our music video. We looked at artists such as Muse, Arctic Monkeys, and Katie Perry and........................
We came to a decision that our film would be a narrative, it would tell the story the music’s story.