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

My director's cut of my music video, answering the above question.


Outasight - Good Evening (unofficial video) (director's cut) from Sam Paterson on Vimeo.

Magazine advert

Digipak Designs

These are a couple of the finished designs for me Digipak. I tried to keep each one with its own character running throughout, inkeeping with the style of the song. I need to get some feedback on them before I decide on which to submit. Then I'll do a some analysis and discussion on my final design.

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

My audience feedback was compiled by showing my piece to peers from the media department, and then asking them to complete a sheet summarising their thoughts on the piece, and also estimate what mark they would award (out of a possibly 40) based on the criteria detailed in the mark scheme.

The range of the marks was between 24 and 38. Clearly, there was a great deal of varying opinion, with some responding incredibly positively, whilst others responded with an opposing, more conservative mark, thus indicating to me that each audience member will have his or her own, individual reaction to my piece, and it will appeal differently to individuals.

The mean mark given by the audience was 33.4, which is around 84%. This is a strong mark, and is well into the top 'level 4' band, showing that they believed that my work had, in general, exceeded basic skills and was excellent in most areas. Above all, I can learn from this that, for the most part, people thought my work was of a high standard, and as a result can be considered to have some success.

One of the key areas that was highlighted in the 'comments' section of the sheet to be successful was the use of stop-motion animation. People were complimentary of its successes, and it received only one limited criticism. Many comments highlighted how fluid the motion was and not 'jumpy'. I have learnt from these comments that I was right to be ambitious, and attempt to work with stop motion, and that the meticulous attention to detail had helped my piece's success.

The most frequently mentioned weakness in my work, however, was the narrative. People often commented that the plot did not maintain their interest. I chose to use a very familiar setting and feature routine tasks, thus I agree that the subject matter may well not be of interest, and indeed that was my intention. I intended to create visually interesting scenes through the use of photography and animation. Some noticed this approach an commented that whilst the actions were everyday, they would be familiar to the audience, adding humour at how they were being carried out by small red men. These critical responses taught me that maybe my intention was too subtly portrayed for some within this audience, and that people of around my age are looking for something more obviously interesting than photography alone, and need an exciting plot to truly engage with a video.

Another common negative response was that some of the shots, particularly towards the end of the video, were too long. This was noticed by a fair number of people, and is a point I am more than willing to concede is true. When editing my footage, I realised that I would need to make some of the cuts longer, in order to fill the entirety of the running time of the music. Thus, some of the cuts are longer than the ideal. One of the people who picked up on this commented that it may fit in with the slow, relaxed feel of the song. This may be true, but for a more general audience, a few of the shots last longer than seem natural, and people are quick to pick up on such things. I have learned from this that I should plan more shots in future, to avoid a shortage at the editing phase.

One criticism that I found particularly hard to understand was that of people commenting that my work lacked attention to 'mise-en-scene', with people suggesting that I should work more on it, or that I had only made a limited effort. I was particularly puzzled by this as I had spent a great deal of time establishing a mise-en-scene. For example, using only natural light was a particularly difficult and unconventional task, yet I undertook it to maintain a natural feel to my work. I carefully selected props like the coffee cups, and Cafetiere to establish a familiar breakfast environment for my viewer. The symbolic use of costume to signify my character's move from the fantastic world, to the ordinary business world. All of these were conscience decisions made to better my mise-en-scene. It may be that they were, again, too subtle for this particular audience.

The audience feedback, however, was largely positive even though comments were largely used to suggest improvements, most made more general statements of approval also. It is worth bearing in mind that the audience feedback wasn't taken strictly from my target audience and that it is possible that members of the audience I had in mind when creating my work may have noticed things like the more subtle mise-en-scene, or found enjoyment in the narrative. Despite this, my audience feedback has taught me a great deal about where I could improve my work, as well as confirming to me that it, in general, is a strong music video.

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

The relationship between my project and ancillary tasks is key to their successes. It is important to note that the ancillary tasks should combine with music video in such a way as to enhance its success, and that of the entire project, and such the links between them should be strong and exist in a way that draws an audience into the franchise in general, and not focus their attention on a single element.

I chose to use a simple, brown paper style theme for both ancillary tasks. In a way, the magazine advert section was directly linked to the album by the shared theme, and would act as more effective advertising as a result of recognition. A person may walk into a record shop, for example, and immediately pick out the album on the shelves due to recognising the cover image from the advert they had seen in their favourite music magazine. In turn, this would generate more interest in the music video through increased popularity of the album. I feel that this method of visually tying the two ideas together is a successful form of advertising, and increases the success of my work as a combination. This idea was confirmed somewhat by a short discussion raised using the social network 'Facebook'. The audience members who replied to my post commented on how they would automatically associate the two pieces, and that the album would be far more likely to register in their minds if presented to them in a music shop.

In terms of visuals, the links between the ancillaries and the main task are not immediately clear. The theme of my ancillary does not make a visual link with the mise-en-scene of  my music video, and an observer may have to more actively decode the significance of the brown paper idea. In my view, I chose to use the brown paper not because of a obvious link to my video in how it looks, but more so in how it makes you feel. The qualities people associate with brown paper packages usually feature nostalgia, optimism and excitement. These are traits that I attempted to portray in my music video. The optimistic, excited start to a new day. The feeling of nostalgia that goes with the jazz-influenced hip-hop sound, harking back to the days of Marvin Gaye. The symbolic connotations of brown paper is that of a gift. It represents a gift in much the same way that the efforts of the Plasticine men represents a gift. As such, the combination of my portfolio is more than visual, it is emotional. Tying into what a person feels rather than sees which is, in my opinion, far more powerful and makes for a more successful combination. By looking at the responses to the question I posted on my facebook page, it is fair to say that other people's interpretation of the look of my ancillary tasks somewhat match my own, reinforcing the idea that people will associate the two sections of my portfolio.

I tried to keep an ongoing trend of simplicity through my work. This is shown in the homogeneity of my ancillary task, and the modesty of my music video. The use of a straightforward, yet effective design for my ancillary creates a great deal of symbolism and a lasting impression from a basic idea. This is also true of my production work. It held a philosophy of simplicity, based on an idea containing little dis-equilibrium or raw emotion, but merely suggested ideas and feelings to the audience. By utilising this idea of a single set of ideals running through my entire portfolio, it gives an impression of identity, promoting a single idea more effectively than three projects with little linking them together.

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

A podcast, by me, answering one of the questions of my evaluation.

Podcast by Carskol Blue Division

Audience Feedback - Brief Analysis

In general, I would say that the audience feedback was fairly positive. Most responses placed it within the top Level 4 marking band. People did identify, however, some things that, as a media product, limited my video's success.

Many people commented that the content of my video was not interesting enough to hold their attention. The basic concept of dressing in the morning was not enough. This may be explained by the fact that for the most part, these people were towards the lower end of my target age range, and maybe didn't represent a sample of my target audience. I attempted, through photography and animation, to create interesting visual images within an ordinary context. This may be something that they would not be able to appreciate.

One person commented that they thought I could have paid more attention to the mise-en-scene of my product. This was a very unexpected comment, as I spent the majority of my time creating an interesting image, through mise-en-scene. The fact that I used a great deal of props that are symbolic of breakfast and a optimistic morning. The way I used costume to show my characters transition from the fantistic world of slumber, to the harsh world of reality, work and suits. It may be that this person was thinking of mise-en-scene in very blatent, conventional and superficial terms and was not able to understand the subtleties of my work on visuals.

The animation was, however, very well reviewed. People complimented the motion, and were clearly aware of the time and effort that had gone into making it. This was an observation I can agree with, and people seemed to appreciate that comprimises had to made in some areas to accomadate the difficulty of animating using stop motion. I maybe couldn't include as much animation as I wanted to, due to the time commitment of the animation.

Magazine Advert analysis

I chose the brown paper idea as I think it has a nostalgic quality that reflects the mood  of the song. The track I chose takes several influences from retro music, and I think that using the brown paper implies that. It also has the symbolic connotation of being a gift, tying into the idea that the help given by the red men is a gift to my character.

I think, presented on a page, this would stand out in comparrison to other styles of advert. It seems to me that the technique of black background, white writing is a little over used and is no longer as effective. I think the fact that my advert looks as if it has a texture will encourage the reader to pay closer attention to the advert, and encourage them to touch it.

I chose to include reviews and comments on the advert, obeying the conventions I have seen in other promotions. Although it is a commonly used convention, I think it still is good to include. I know from personal experience that I tend not to trust an advert when there aren't at least a few possitive reviews.

Filming update.

Been busy filming more and more today. Very pleased with how it has been going. Lots of challenges to overcome however. Such as realising my plasticine men can't hold up a knife to butter some bread and having to use a plastic one instead, nor is he able to pull some toast from the toaster so I had to make cunning use of some thread to pull it out instead. Most problems are overcome through creative thinking, and copious use of Blue tack and cotton thread.

Help today came in the form of my dad who proved to be far more successful at animating than myself, so I took more of a directing role.

The process is becoming increasingly organic, which I like. Plans are subject to alteration during the production process. For example, today I planned for the figure stirring the coffee to fall off the cup backwards in a humorous and slapstick style. We realised it was easier to animate him falling into the coffee itself. This was also funnier. Everybody wins!

I chose to remove some steps from some of the actions, long sections of figures moving from place to place when the audience would assume it had happened if it wasn't shown are incredibly boring, and added steps in other, such as adding a section of the figures sliding down the banister of the stairs when moving between the bedroom (upstairs) to the kitchen (downstairs.) One unfortunate loss was of the planned Dolly shot across the bedroom floor. This proved impossible as the figures were unable to stand up on the carpeted floor.

Progress is good on the animation front and I should be fine to film my live action this time next week. Promising progress in my oh-so-humble opinion.

The real Digipak

I've just found the Digipak used for the album the song I'm using comes from, so I thought it would be good to look at for some inspiration. Capturing the feel of not only the song, but the artist as well is very important.

I like this Digipak a lot. It has a very cool, urban, New York look to it. It's interesting that they featured the artist quite clearly but I think this works well; his look compliments that of the album cover. It makes sense, listening to the music on the album and the song I have chosen, that they would choose a style like this. It's simple, a single image with a bit of text, but it still captures style and feel of the music well, and represents what inside in an easy to understand format.

Evaluation Questions.

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

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

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

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

Looking at these questions, I think I should have enough to say about each of them. They seem to have a simular feel to the questions answered at AS. I think I could answer the first questions using a director's cut? It would be a good idea to do at least one or two of my answers in a non-traditional format.

Some bits so far.

I've been really busy away from my media work recently, so I haven't posted in a while. I thought it might be a good idea to just give you a quick look at the work I've done so far.

This is by no means anything approaching a finished product, but it just shows you what I've been working on so far.

Filming Day Two

Filming has continued for its second day. It seems to be going alright. The process in general is very time consuming, just by its nature, so progress is very slow. One of the main difficulties I am finding is that, since my film is set in the morning, I can only shoot between about nine and two to give the right kind of light. This gives me only two days a week, at the weekend, where I am able to film.

Whilst this is unfortunate, it is very important that my film looks visually convincing.

I've loaded a bit of the footage into Premier Pro and had a look. It seems to be interesting enough. It certainly does have a somewhat 'home-made' look about it. The shots aren't perfect, the motion is completely fluid, but it has its own independant look and its own character.

Filming Day One

I've begun animating my stop-motion footage and filming some of the live action work.

From the very start I encountered problems which I couldn't foresee. For example, at one point, I had to animate a figure switching on a kettle. However, the force required to push down the switch was greater than the force holding its feet to the floor, resulting in it falling over. I had to use thin thread to pull, and hold, down the switch between shots and to stop it from springing back up. This required more than one person.

I did manage to get some of the shots down. Unfortunately, it's difficult to see if they need re-shooting before I have loaded them into Premier Pro and edited them together. It is fair to say that it is much more taxing and time consuming than I first thought it would be, but we persevere!

Timed answer (30 minutes)

Discuss how far digital technology has enhanced the creative process in your media production work.

The ultimate aim of any piece of media technology is to help a person to better realise their creative vision for a project. Whilst better technology will not make a poor idea successful, it can help a project with potential to achieve as highly as possible.

Throughout my production work at AS, I felt I was held back by the quality of our cameras. My work was highly visual and I found that the low quality DV tape cameras hindered the appeal of images I had spent a great deal of time composing. During my A2 course, I feel that using a high quality HD camera will provide better clarity in my footage and result in a aesthetically successful piece of work, giving my ideas better representation in film format.

Editing software during the AS course was sufficient. Whilst the software package, iMovie, was fairly basic, this did enable me to fully understand the software and use it in a dynamic and creative way. With updated editing software facilities in the form of Adobe Premier Pro, I understand that I will be able to achieve more in terms of advanced functions. Useful and interesting as this is, the program is also highly complex. I do not yet completely understand how to use it to its full potential which may have a negative effect on my creative output simply by being unable to perform rudimentary tasks. Whilst I could potentially achieve more on Adobe Premier Pro, I still do not yet have the knowledge I need to do so.

Post production during the AS course was neglected. I did not posses the facilities or the understanding. Through the addition of the Adobe After Effects package to our system, this is an area that can be developed greatly over the A2 course. It will allow me to be creative in a completely new way, utilising processes like computer generated images and effects, having been trained in the software's capabilities.

Reflecting on the comparatively basic facilities available at AS, I can now appreciate the true nature of creativity in media. Having better facilities will, in theory, allow me to better replicate my ideas, but during AS, our equipment in itself encouraged creative thinking. Working on my production task taught me to embrace the facility's weaknesses, as well as its strengths, working around problems and often producing positive effects for my finished product as a whole.

Creativity and availability of suitable technology may well be two separate issues. To be creative, one must have a strong idea. It has to be clear in the creator's mind exactly what they want to achieve. Production of a successful piece of media hinges on its founding principles, and then using technology to best replicate them.

Media technology is important within production tasks. As I have discussed, not only does it allow you to represent your ideas better, it also can effect the character of your piece and force creative thought. That said, the key factor in any production, in regards to creativity, is the core idea that lies at its centre. Without an idea, you simply don't have a production.

Hello there!

I've been busy and made my first character. I tried out animating him just doing a simple wave.

Stop motion wave from Sam Paterson on Vimeo.

Making the models!

My stop motion cast is coming together! I created a few models this weekend. Here follows a step by step guide to how I made my actors.

1. I  chose red plastacine for my models and bought it fairly cheaply from a craft shop. I used some regular household metal wire for the model's 'skeleton.'

2. I then cut several lengths of wire to form a basic skeleton including limbs, joints and supports for the head.

3. I then twisted the separate sections together at the various joints to form the complete skeleton.

4. Once the skeleton was complete, I could start applying the plastacine to flesh out the figure.

When all the wire is covered, the figure is complete. The first model I made, I realised, was far too large. So I made another attempt at making a smaller one which came out much better.

A quick coffee break on a busy day of shooting.

The stop-motion masterpiece

So, this is the film we created during the workshop. See previous post for learning curves and comments.

Stop Animation Workshop 3.12.10

Last Friday we had a stop-animation workshop in school. We had a chance to use a slightly more professional set-up than that which we will use for our own work. By the end of the day we had produced about 25 seconds of animation.

The workshop itself was fairly useful. The people who delivered it pushed us into using things like story boards and into a way of working we weren't used to which, in a way, was both good and bad.

More than anything, the experience taught me a lot about how to move the characters between shots, and the kind of size of movements I would need to use. It also made me realise that making the animation is going to be an incredibly slow process. We worked literally for the whole day, a team of three of us only managed to make 25 seconds of video. We were, however, working at 25 frames per second. This makes fairly high resolution footage but is really time consuming. I hope to work at 12fps in my piece so I can produce work quicker. Although the animation won't be as smooth, that kind of feel may work well.

Hopefully I'll be able to upload the film we made once the file is emailed to me.

Video Treatment from Sam Paterson on Vimeo.

This is a short video treatment I recorded to summarise my idea. Enjoy!

65daysofstatic (Ancillary Task)

65daysofstatic are a band I really like. They are particularly well known for their effective and interesting album covers. They are a band that have built up a reputation for their arty and mysterious image.

Here are some of their album and single covers:





You can see that they aren't really linking by any running theme or style, but are more based in an intriguing central image, presented simply. The band name and titles are discrete and do no detract from the image.

Detailed Action Plan

3 December - Stop-animation workshop

10 December - Models made

3 January - All filming complete

10 January - Rough cut complete

21 January - Have final cut completed

28 January - Final deadline for main task

11 February - Complete ancillary task

18 February - Final deadline for ancillary task

My Pitch to Eugene

I recently pitched an idea for a music video a song by 'Betty Curse' to Eugene, who visited us a little while ago. It was a nervous experience, but certainly one that has taught me a lot about presenting my ideas.

Above all, the experience taught me that you can present an idea however you want, if it isn't any good, people will never be interested. I watched other people presenting ideas in a very innovative way, which was great, but if their ideas didn't work, Eugene wasn't interested.

I also learned that as well as ideas being interesting, your pitch needs to make them easy to understand. If you are trying to explain something to somebody and they just don't get it, they will likely become very bored, very quickly.

In terms of my own pitch, due to a technical fault, I had no images to help me. I think, however, this didn't limit me too much (it may have even helped me) and I think I explained my ideas clearly and concisely. Eugene seemed fairly interested throughout and picked up on several key points. He complimented my delivery and said that my plot was easy to follow. He did raise the issue that it may be difficult to produce the video on budget given the complexity.

Good Evening (Dream Big)

Good Morning, Good Evening
I hope you like dreaming
You live to learn and you learn to live
It's positive and negative
I can't sleep but I dream Big (3x)

Well it hard to get to bed with a head full of dreams
pocket full of loose change rippin at the seams
and it hard to keep move with head full of steam
It's the green It's the scene It's everything

Hard to gain perspective when ya eyes wont close
It's hard to stand tall when you already on ya toes
money can't grow on trees yea I know
It's the dough It's the show that got me all froze
en I wanna change my whole lifen
runnen out a gas tell me who gon scifen
I'm liken my chances but I don't say jack
spin the wheel of fortune like I'm sajak
all I wanna do is is a ride in a maybach
look real important but please don't say that
thats all that matters  to meeeee
why can't I just dreaaaaaaaam

Hook

Well its hard to find peace when you fighten in a war
hard to see the stars when ya sleepin on the floor
take what you can get grab for a little more
at the mall lets ball who cares about debt anymooooooooooore
no freeebies
stay aliven  like the bee gees
if they renting on easystreet believe me
I'm buyin a penthouse yea
until then tho I got to get those flows
that I do thru the ghettos
and suburbs alike
cause I really like things that are nice
greed my only vice
but I know its only natural  (ooh)
so imma do what I have to do (yea)
and when I finally get some rest (uh huh)
I can dream bout shit thats fresh.

Hook

Contacting Outasight - The Answer

Contacting Outasight

I've just contacted Outasight (the artist of the song I'm using) via his Tumblr blog page to make sure he does mind me using his material.

This is what I wrote:

" Hey Outasight!

Can I just say, I think your music is amazing. It just seems to get everything right.

What I wanted to ask was, whether you would be happy for me to use your song Good Evening (Dream Big) for a school project.

We have to make a music video and I choose your song because I listen to it almost every day on my way to class, starts the day off right. The sound is so optimistic!

I can't wait to hear back and get the project moving!

Also, I wrote about you on my Tumblr blog a while back, have a read if you are interested! "

So that's the message, lets hope I get a possitive reply soon!

My Mood Board

Eugene Riecansky

We recently had a visit and lecture from music video director Eugene Riecansky. He's a leading figure in his field and it was really interesting to hear how he go to where he is. As he was talking us through his work it was easy to see how he went about coming up with an idea. He has loads of really useful, practical tips that would only be realised through years of experience. For example, he made it clear that it was important to get your filming done over one day. Whilst that may not be possible for me, I realise now that filming it quickly over consecutive days would make things a lot easier.

When he was talking about planning, he told us that he never used story boards. Whilst he acknowledged that planning a shot list was crucial, he said that using story boards will often result in little to no creative variation when filming. This is a very valid point. Despite planning to use storyboards it may be an approach I try to use when planning my filming.

I asked him whether he preferred filming indoors or outdoors. He said he preferred indoor location largely due to the fact they result in fewer complications due to weather and other factors. This is helpful to me as I plan to shoot indoors anyway, so it served to confirm my decision.

Most of all, however, he focused on the fact that for any piece of work to be successful, the basic idea has to work. If you do not have a good, well formed idea to start with, you will struggle to make a good video. This has encouraged me due to the fact that I knew my idea right from the start. Though it has changed somewhat, I still think the basic concept is intact. I always planned to use stop motion characters, in a home setting, within a fantasy world.

So... How does Adobe Premiere Pro work?

A little while ago, we had a workshop in After Effects (our video post-production software.) Useful as that was, I still need to become proficient with Premier Pro (our editing software) making stop-motion films.

So, I went online and found a tutorial which has proved very useful. It takes you through the process step by step, setting out what you have to do clearly. How very helpful!

Click the link here to read for yourself!

Characters

Stop motion is go! But aside from my single human character, I need not a small number of clay characters. This is useful as a film maker because clay characters don't have other commitments. Nor do they need feeding or paying, and they never get tired/cold. Easy! I just have to make them first... But how?

Well, I've found this article here which has all sorts of useful hints and tips for creating a stop motion cast. This bit of particular use...

" Clay Figures: One of the main ways that Stop Motion figures are created is using clay. This can be found in many productions, from Gumby, Bob the Builder, and Celebrity Deathmatch. Clay allows you to create your figure from drawings or imagination and because you are not relying on action figures, that will be a lot more flexible and allow for a smoother animation.

To begin making a clay figure, you need to build a skeleton. Just like humans have bones to keep them up, clay figures need what are known as armatures. There are many ways of doing this and one of the easiest ways is simply creating a wire structure. Using aluminum wire and tools, you will twist and shape the wire to form the basic shape and size of the body you would like to create. Then, at key anchor points, either hot glue or melted clay would be attached for a stronger bond and less amount of breaking. These anchor points are at the head, hands, feet, pelvis, and anywhere else necessary to create the figure. "

So that's it. I need to go out and buy/find some...

• Modelling clay
• Aluminium Wire
• Willing helpers

Then I should be all set to go about making my models and start making my film. Exciting!

Oh wait, we have to do an Ancillary task!

So, I recently was reminded that aside from the video itself we also have to produce an Ancillary piece in the form of a CD Digipak. But what is a Digipak?

In basic terms, a Digipak is a paper version of traditional plastic jewel case that most CDs are sold in. Here are a few examples:

The music industry is now split between digipak and jewel cases. Many prefer digipaks due the the jewel cases tendency to break.

What exactly is it that makes a sucessful album cover design? This is a selection of some of the best covers of all time: http://www.wired.com/underwire/2010/06/gallery-album-covers/

Looking through them, it seems that there isn't one unifying theme that links them. They vary drastically in complexity and subject matter. Mostly, it seems that a successful cover has to continue the feel of the music itself. A lot of what the cover looks like seems to be dictated by the style or genre of the album. This is something I will have to think about when I am creating my design. It needs to work with the song, not against it.

Focus Group

As promised, here's my focus group! I conducted it to find out which of my possible song choices people responded best to. Overall, I think you'll agree, most people seemed to enjoy the Outasight video the best and thought it would work best for my video. I'm going to go with that song. It's the one I liked the most as well!


Media Research from Sam Paterson on Vimeo.

I've been reading...

Recently, I read 'The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy' by the god of animation that is Tim Burton. Whilst I don't plan to use any of the stories exactly, I really enjoyed the way that Tim created this world of tiny fantastic characters, and presented them in a slightly darker way than the norm. It was interesting to see Tim Burton's creative output right there on a page infront of you. The drawings he did were highly stylised and took a simular form to that of his stop-motion animated features.

My Idea So Far...

Even though it's still early days in terms of production, and my research is not yet complete, I'd still like to do a quick post telling you what my idea is thus far...

Obviously, this is a stop motion film.  I already know the song I'm planning to use (I have footage of my focus group to upload once it is edited) and have established a central feel. The action I'm thinking of currently is a late teen male, rising out of bed in the morning, but as he does, several clay characters come alive. They become animated and set about completing his morning chores; making his breakfast, cleaning his shoes, ironing his clothes. Throughout the course of the video the male is gradually prepared for the day ahead and as he walks out the door, the animated characters wave goodbye and go back to sleep.

I realise there are some fairly complex actions to animate there. I think, however, that it will be possible to interweave animated footage of the characters, and filmed footage of the male to bulk out the material. I worked out that if I wanted all three minutes of my videos to be stop-motion animated, I would need to take over two thousand images! I don't think I have the time for that...

Questions questions...

It's audience research time! I need to come up with some questions to ask before I head out so that I make sure that I'm getting all the information I need. But first of all, what do I actually want to find out...?

• What people typically expect from a music video.
• What people respond positively and negatively to in a music video.
• Whether people still utilise music videos as a format.
• How they view them.
• What each music genre implies in terms of the moving image.
• Any particularly significant examples.
• What makes a music video memorable.
• What people think of stop-motion (do they even know what it is?) 

So that's what I need to find out. Questions need to let me know what I need to know, without boring people.

1. When I say 'music video', what's the first example that comes to mind? What do you think makes it memorable to you?
2. Do you have any other favourite videos?
3. Do you watch music videos often? Would you prefer to watch music television or on an online streaming site like YouTube.
4. What music genre are you most interested in? What would you expect from a music video of that genre?
5. What would you expect of a conventional Hip-Hop video?
6. Any thoughts on stop-motion animations?

I've already done a post on my target audience. Ideally I should try to interview somebody fitting that description. Alongside that, however, I hope to interview a large variety of people on film.

But which song will I use...?

So my idea is moving forward.

I do, however, need to choose a song to use for my video.  It will help develop my ideas further. I've come up with three options and I'm going to choose from those.

Outasight - Good Evening (Dream Big)



Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly - Find The Time



Joshua Radin - Closer



I'm going to play a focus group these songs tomorrow and listen to their thoughts on them. Hopefully I'll then be able to make a decision...

Video Notes

Today, we watched a short documentary detailing the rise and evolution of the music video. I've made some quick notes under each section covered...

History

• First combination of music and film came with MGM music videos which were based around performances of popular songs.
• The 60s saw a rise in popularity of Rock 'n' Roll films staring artists like Elvis and the Beatles.
• Later that decade, the popularity of TV variety shows was increasing. They often featured musical segments where a band would do a live performance of whatever song they were promoting at the time.
• Often, artists were unable to appear live due to other commitments. In their place, they often created a visual piece or recorded performance to play in their absence.
• The Beatles saw an opportunity in these short films and began creating films themselves so their singles could receive TV airtime. A popular example is their video for 'Strawberry Fields.'
• Possibly the first music video as we would recognise it was the famous video for Queen - 'Bohemian Rhapsody.' It was too complex for live performance and the band wanted a way to bring their album cover to life, so a film was made on a tight budget in a short amount of time. Since then, the video has become iconic receiving a great deal of coverage and perhaps adding to the success of the song itself.

MTV

• MTV was launched in August 1981.
• In its beginning, it was only able to play 200 of the same videos which was hardly suitable to supply an entire channel, leading to its nickname 'Empty-TV.'
• British bands responded to the popularity of the channel by producing a greater quantity of videos in order to supply the ever more demanding audience.
• They made videos with a simplicity at heart. Budgets were limited, and complicated ideas often had to be replicated by cheaper means.
• MTV faced issues with funding. Whilst videos were a nice addition to the single, they needed to prove that they were viable as a business.
• By finding a small record shop in Oklahoma which has seen an increase of particular albums following their airtime on MTV, they showed that videos were a effective method of marketing a track. Aside from being an interesting arty production; they also sold records.

Big Spends to Anti-Video

• Following the MTV success story, videos saw escalating costs for ever more extravagant productions.
• The most popular artists, such as Michael Jackson and Will Smith, commonly spent more than 2 million dollars on one music video.
• Whilst this did make for a more 'glossy' final product, this did not necessarily reflect in a huge increase in profits.
• Artist sought to bring the art back into their videos by decreasing the budget, in some cases to bellow 500 dollars, in order to inspire a more creative output, far removed from the world of mainstream Pop music.
• Moby, Bjork and Fatboy Slim all made attempts at creating videos with a focus on low production costs, interesting concepts and simple creations. Often, these resulted in an individual and visually interesting outcome

What to do next...

I REALLY need to do some audience research. I've summarised my target audience in a post below. Bearing that in mind I should interview a variety of subjects. All different ages, tastes and backgrounds.

I also should make a final decision on my song. I have a few in mind; probably something hip-hop.

What a team!

oragami stop motion from Lizzy Gaskin on Vimeo.

Me and fellow media blogger had a crack at making a quick stop-motion of an Origami swan (Lizzy's poor spelling, not mine.)

It was fairly easy and quick to make. But the quality isn't great... Before working on my final piece I should experiment with things like frame rates.

Her Morning Elegance - Oren Lavie

Her Morning Elegance from Kenneth Chua on Vimeo.

This is an extremely successful example of a music video made using stop motion. It has over 10 million views on YouTube and a Grammy nomination. It is composed of 2096 still images that have been arranged to give the impression of a moving image.

As a music video it follows the common theme of following a daily routine. Towards the start you watch the light moving across the room giving some impression of the passage of time. You watch as the model completes some fairly mundane tasks; walking, riding the train, sleeping, spending time with a friend. Through the use of sleep-related items in the mise-en-scene (running over pillows, some pajamas flying past) these fairly typical actions take on a fair more interesting form. Mise-en-scene is key in establishing the actions themselves. The flashing lights imply the subway train. The models hair implies motion. The socks representing fish imply some fantastic underwater world.

As I have noticed in many of the films I have watched, stop-motion commonly features the idea of a whole world existing within our own. What I mean by this is that the entire action of the story takes place in a world that is contained in a bedroom. This is established by the use of floorboards beneath the bed and the props (books, shoes, papers) sitting beside it.

The editing is obviously key, as it is in any stop-motion. The shots are edited at a specific frame rate to imply a realistic motion in the its finished form. The fact that the shots at times are synchronised with the music, such as when the cello floats past as it is mentioned in the song and plays, also shows some conscious decisions which link the two media together.

I really like the video. The way it is contained in one room with objects that are seen every day makes it an interesting watch. Its inspiring also, to think that I could have a go at creating something like that myself. You can view the individual frames at http://www.hmegallery.com/, and from that you can see the kind of movements made between each frame. Stop-motion like this might just be the answer for me.

Initial Idea

My initial idea uses stop motion. I'm thinking of using the song 'Good Evening (Dream Big)' by Outasight. I like it's optimistic feel that I associate with the beginning of a new day. I think the idea of a Plasticine stop motion character would lend itself well to the song. I imagine the character having their own smaller, colourful world based around toys and homemade scenery. The main challenges I can see are making stop motion of a decent quality, within the time frame I'm working to. Wallace and Gromit animators aim to make 2 seconds of film per day! I'd hope to work a little quicker than that.

10 points about my audience...

1. Age 16-30
2. Likes music of a variety of genres.
3. Subscribes to pretty much every funny Youtube vlogger.
4. Loves nothing more than discovering a new band or artist.
5. Has a Starbucks loyalty card.
6. He's an arty type, but he likes people to know it.
7. Buys all his clothes from a vintage outlet.
8. Takes their camera everywhere.
9. Acts like they live in New York, even though don't.
10. Spends their evenings in a arty bar or music venue.

5 Things that...

... I will do this year, having learnt from last year

1. Be more experimental and ambitious with my ideas.
2. Listen to teachers advice on my coursework more closely, and take their comments to heart.
3. Make sure my shots have a greater variety and that I don't dwell on specific images.
4. Attempt something that isn't so sombre.
5. Make sure my blog documents my planning from beginning to start.

... I hope to avoid this year, that were issues last year.

1. I won't rely on actors. Although mine did a good job, it's easier to rely on myself.
2. Just using the school DV cameras.
3. Just using text to document on my blog.
4. Think that I'm the first person in the world to think of using black and white.
5. Research into people that are exclusively my own age.

Action Plan!

It's fairly clear I'm going to go ahead with the stop motion idea whatever brief I decide on. So, here's an action plan as to how I'm going to go about coming up with my final product...

1. I need to learn, fairly quickly, the skills behind stop motion. I already own a camera. It may be that I need to experiment with techniques before attempting my final piece.
2. I need to research example of stop motion within my chosen brief. For children's drama, this could be something like Wallace and Gromit, or Morph the popular childrens character. Several artists have uses stop-motion in their videos including Slipknot and Passion Pit amongst others.
3. I should attempt some basic stop motion before I start my final work. I could start with a very short piece of animation, to hone my skills further.
4. Then the final idea will need to be created and scripted before production begins.

Some bits of research!

I'm very interested in trying out some stop motion for my coursework. Still somewhere between The children's drama brief and the music video, so here are some examples of both that I found interesting...


Music Video


Passion Pit - Sleepyhead ⊱ JazZstePpa Remix ⊰ from Jazz steppa on Vimeo.


Children's Television




Both pieces seem to develop this idea of animated, smaller characters, having their own world within our own. You see Morph doing his magic show in amongst some life sized posessions, and the black toy moving across the desk.

I thought the music video became fairly abstract in parts, but it kind of works. Suits the style of music very well. There didn't seem to be a unifying narative as such but, then again, does it really need one? The simple movements alone seemed to provide amusment enough.

The children's show is centred around one loveable  character 'Morph', and the show follows him on some suitably adorable adventures. The challenge in this type of work is to create a character that children will enjoy watching in the same way they do Morph, Postman Pat or any other successful children's character for that matter.

In terms of animation, Morph is far in excess of the level I can hope to achieve, but I think I can take some ideas from it and translate them to my own work. The use of a single protagonist in a simple humanoid form should make a realistic effect more achievable. The levels of animation in the music video are far more approachable. It seems to have been created fairly quickly, away from proffessional studios. I should look further into home-grown stop-motion of this style in the future...

Production Work

Some Ideas...

Music Video

I thought that it would be good to attempt a stoop motion film. This has been done by several youtube video makers and achieved successfully, often with a very simple set up. This would present a serious challenge when it comes to production and editting, but also a creative challenge that might inspire an interesting outcome. I aim for a mise-en-scene that is bright and upbeat. I think a dark, gritty film has become somewhat of a cliche.

Childrens Drama Opening

Strangely, I think a stop-motion film would also work well for a children's TV show, especially for a younger audience. Especially with a bright mise-en-scene. Possibly with little plastacine things moving around... Thinking about it, that idea could work for both.

Research and planning



• How did your research into genre contribute to your production work?


My research into films of an arthouse or film-noir style has a stong influence over my production work. The tendency towards minimalism and subtlety, and a strong focus on photographic style images were all as a result of specific research into these particular genre.

• How did your research into audience contribute to your production work?


My audience research led me to the idea that within an opening, less is more. People seemed to appreciate the idea that an opening is best kept simple and easy to understand, and expressed a serious distaste for films that brought in several confusing ideas early on. It also confirmed that people would respond well to black and white as a format, as long as it was used in the correct genre.


• How did your research into institutions responsible for the production and regulation of the media influence your production work?


By researching institutions, I realised that companies such as Paramount Vantage valued the quality of film above finantial gain. This encouraged me to persue an individual piece of cinema, giving the value of the film as a piece of art over that of comercial appeal.


• What pre-production planning techniques did you employ (scripting, storyboarding, shot-lists etc.)? How effective was your planning – how did it help you in the production phase?


I produced a story board early on. From this I was able to complete a shot list before heading out to get the footage. I think this was effective. I was able to gather all of the necessary shots in two nights of filming, with very few problems. Prior to filming, I took some location shots so that I could further visualise the final products and get a greater sense of its mise-en-scene.


• What did you learn from planning your first production that helped you to improve your planning for the second?


That knowing exactly what shots you need to take where and when can make filming a lot quicker and run smoothly.


• How did you use audience feedback to influence your production work while it was in progress?
 
Whilst editting the final footage, I thought about how the audience responded to my questions about pace within an openning sequence. Feedback from my classmates and teachers also helped me to edit my footage in order to establish the pace I desired.

Last Years Blogs - Let's 'ave a butchers!

Our homework for this week to compare last year's blogs to the mark scheme and work out what kind of mark we might give based on what we've read.

0123 Leeds

I think this blog deserved a very strong Level 4. It seems to satisfy almost every possible detail of the mark scheme. Idea's are documented at every stage. They are communicated clearly, they are well presented and there has been significant use of ICT throughout. I really liked the way that the blog seemed to form a diary, where the progress of the project was updated regularly and extensively. Planning is documented through use of scanned sheets and photographs. My one slight criticism might be that, in my mind, there seems to be too much text. Whilst photographs and other images feature, the blog is predominately text. The candidate is trying to communicate a very large amount of information and the lines and lines of text make it a daunting read. 

0227 Tooke 

Again, I felt that this was a very strong blog. I particularly liked the design; the appearance of the blog certainly gave of a much more approachable impression. The use of text was as concise as possible, whilst still documenting the significant steps in the production process.  The use of ICT was very impressive, especially in regards to the frequent use of embedded YouTube clips to better illustrate an idea, or an important piece of research. Speaking of research, it's all there.Communicated clearly, and detailed extensively. Plans for production are detailed sufficiently. Again, this blog would, most likely, gain a Level 4.

 

A2 Production Briefs - First thoughts

Today we were given our 5 options for our production.

My first thought was that the newspaper option was not for me. It doesn't really give me much option for creativity and print really isn't what I want the majority of my project to be made up of.

The two film options that seem the most appealing are the children's drama title sequence or the music video. I'm used to working in film, and with music being a serious interest for me, surely it would make sense to make a music video? However, the children's opening seems like it would be really enjoyable and I think that if I enjoyed a film it would make a better end result.

G325

G325 Critical Perspectives in Media


This is a written paper sat during the summer exams. It is synoptic in that it draws together all that will be learnt during the course.


Section A is entirely devoted to production work (G324) throughout AS and A2.


1. Research tasks carried out.

• Audience research in the form of a series of short interviews.
• Viewing similar examples of film openings and writing analysis on blog.

2. Planning activities.

• Storyboards.
• Location shots.
• Shot list.

3. Challenges which arose during post-production.

• How to strike up a balance between subtlety and interest.
• Maintaining video quality.
• How best to use the software to achieve the desired effect.

Assess the impact of the activities/tasks/challenges you have outlined above on the success (or otherwise) of your finished foundation portfolio.


Audience research and viewing professional examples allowed me to identify the key themes and conventions that appeal most to my target audience. Planning ensured that the whole production ran fairly smoothly and minimized the time spent filming during fading light. Whilst overcoming the challenges created problems, it also encouraged me to think creatively and often resulted in an overall better result.

• My previous piece lacked a sense of continuous narative. Whilst this is less applicable to the A2 task, I should aim to maintain interest.