Director's commentary

Evaluation - 4

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

The construction of the video we used the technologies for the shooting and editing of the video, which we made with final cut editing software. The camera we used was good for videoing and re-recording the scene instantaneously as the camera's playback button allowed us to see the video we recorded and if the camera angle or quality of the video wasn't good enough then we recorded the scene until we got the right angle and quality. Also, we were able to use a lot of editing techniques to help make our video fit the target audience we wanted to make the video for, some of the editing included fast cutting and speeding up scenes to create the right effect to match our music beat.

The use of final cut pro let us edit the video, at a very good standard and to make the video look very realistic and the use of special effects let us, make the video suit the music we had chosen, as special effects were put in the video on the beat. The camera we used was a Canon and Canon's are known to be very reliable, the battery life let us be able to video for long hours, and also the camera quality let us video in bad conditions but the shots came out good. Such as videoing when the lighting is too bright and also when the scene is too dark, but this made us be able to video scenes we wanted and overall the camera was a big help. Also the tripod let us video at different heights therefore giving us different angles and also different types of shots, in the music video. Overall the equipment used helped a lot to achieve a video such as ours, the final product came out very realistic and smooth, whereas using equipment that wasn't as good as the editing program and the camera would of made the video look unprofessional.

The editing techniques we used, were made out to make the video look unique and quirky this was achieved by using special effects, such as earthquake scenes and also the use of negative made the video look modern and urban, we did this on purpose as this editing technique was used to suit the music choice and make the video look more interesting. Also the use of fast-pace scenes and play-back scenes were used to make the video look weird in a good way as our story line was to make the characters performance seem unreal and this was achieved by using fast motion scenes and also the editing technique of reverse play-back. The editing technique used when the character jumps through the wall and a fast transaction to the other scene where he jumps straight through and transports makes the video look crazy and funny, also when the other character tries to jump through the wall and copy the other character we used editing techniques that made the screen red and this was done to make the character look mad as he didn't achieve what he wanted to achieve to transport as efficient as his partner.

The research we put into the video, when we planned it was done by the use of many different things, such as researching current dubstep videos that have been produced officially. Also research used such as finding locations, was done by the use of Google Maps, we found destinations to shoot our video by looking on Google Maps and found back streets in the city centre that would look good for our type of video and to match our music type. We wanted to make a unique video and therefore our research ended up finding dubstep to be the music type we wanted to use for our video, as we have a creative group and dubstep videos need creative ideas and therefore we brainstormed as a group and came up with many different ideas and then chose the best ideas out of all of the contributions made. And came up with what we put in the video, we had many different ideas as we researched thoroughly by watching videos on Youtube and analysing them in depth.

In our planning section we used our research to help us as a outline, to achieve what we wanted. Our planning section consisted of watching similar videos that we wanted to match our video, so therefore we put more creative ideas into our planning and tried to compared it to what it would of been compared to a official video. In the planning we had to make our visual effects suit our music choice, and also the performance so we therefore did this by making the video of two men looking for a imaginary rabbit and this planning was used to make the video look unique. The use of the story board helped us put together and come up with the video we wanted to make, and this helped a lot matching our video to the music choice, also we planned out that we wanted fast cuts to match our dubstep music choice as this was very important to us.

Evaluation - 3

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

The audience that have watched our video, have given lots of positive feedback and our media production has made to look like an official video. We have been given positive feedback such as, the beat is made to look well with the visual aspect such as the change of effects and cuts on the beat. Also the use of locations and the different types of shots, were noticable as extreme close-ups and zoom was used on different shots, which made the video look unique and different to other dubstep videos we have seen in the past. We have had critiscism such as no lip syncing but we replaced this with text and also the performance, that we did in the video. Also we have had comments such as the concept of the video suits the type of music as it is urban and modern, as the video is done in the inner city.

Comments from our audience such as the texture of our video, the special effects, and also the way the video is portrayed have been very helpful as it has helped us improve the video, we tried to portray the video to be insane and crazy, due to men getting angry over a fake rabbit that doesn't exist, the performance we put in the video were men being powerful and able to transport and have special powers. We did this by the use of quick cuts and also how we shown the men moving from different destinations very quickly and also jumping through a wall, into a cut of the man jumping through it. The audience said this made to look very real and was cut to perfection as there were no errors in the transaction of this transportation. Also the audience mentioned the mise en scene as the representation of the men, were hiden and had balaclavas this was due the men thinking it is some sort of illegal stunt to get the rabbit, and they believe it will give them a advantage to life possibly, the audience believe this as the men are hiding and trying to get away with what they are doing, but at one point of the video secruity talk to the men about this and this shows that they need to hide their identities and it is very real to them.

Us as a group have learnt, to be creative no matter what due to the music chosen, and we didn't want to make the story of the video too stereotypical and we wanted to make it strange and different compared to other videos have previously seen in the past. We want to portray our video to be different and unique, and most of the audience who watched the video have said that the video was weird and quirky. And the use of all the different shots were noticed such as on the feet when running and also long-shots and close-ups make the video more watchable and not boring, the audience says we have achieved this and it is made to be strange in a good way.

Overall the audience we have asked, to watch our video believe that our video is edited well, it is very different and unique and quirky in its own way. The ideas put into the video are very unique and not a copy of any official video out there, which makes the video creative and overall a very strong video with the use of technology available, one criticism point was that we did not use green screen, but we believed that the shots we had taken are unique and green screen wasn't needed as it didn't suit our video to make it weird and creative. Also we have had feedback saying that some of the special effects are too dark which make the video look grimey and modern but we did this on purpose as we wanted a contrast of colours to make the music video varied and interesting.

Analysis

Analyse representations in your music video. How does mise en scene and performance contribute to representations?

We analysed our video and the use of mise en scene was made to be different, as we made the two characters in the video to look strange and dodgy, this was made to be true as we used balaclavas to make the men look weird and strange, also the use of hoods to hide their identity were thought of as the men were made to perform like they wanted to hide their identities, and not to get caught by whatever would catch them when looking for the imaginary rabbits. The use of mise en scene contributed to representations as we wanted to represent the men to be crazy and therefore by wearing retro types of clothes and the use of hoods made them look different and unique compared to normal urban people who dress modernly.

The performance contributed to repsentations as the performance was edited and made to look like the men had powers and this represented the men to have amazing powers and to be supernormal, For example teleporting through walls and transporting from one place to another very quickly. Also the performance of the men being crazy and jumping off walls and becoming mad over a imaginary rabbit, represented the men as strange and also not normal. But we wanted to represent them to be this as this is what dubstep is about, it is strange, abnormal and not right in a way, and this is how we represented this. Dubstep music is not liked by everyone and we tried to make people pay more attention to this type of music through the video choice and tried to make the video appealing to multiple ranges of people, and by the use of mise en scene and performance we feel like we have achieved this and will allow more people to listen to dubstep and people can learn the ways of how people are portrayed and represented in music and also the way young people think and imagine how things should be.

Evaluation - 2

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

The aim of our cd cover and advert poster was to be kept consistent and this is done from the use of colours and designs that was repeated, the background was black to create a sinister feel that dubstep gives, and also to make the rest of the images infront to stand out such as the two characters, rabbit and the colourful glow effect. This will differentiate us from other covers which are generally plain or have significant object or person that will make it stand out whilst we wanted everything on the cd cover to be eyecatchy, enabling us to attract our customers when placed on the shelves in stores. The glow effect is created in different colours to match the video effects and give that party feel that dubsteps sends out. The rabbit wasnt shown on our main video, but we still applied it onto the cd cover as the song title was called, 'Misshin Wabbhit', and the whole concept of the narrative was about finding a rabbit. The rabbit and the two charcaters on the cd covers are wearing bandanas, giving that gangster feel that we wanted, this was also complemented from the urban location that this video was set in; these features made our target audience being younge adults. The language that we added to the advert poster was important to be kept simple and this was done from the size of the text which was reasonably big and clear to attract our audience attention. On the advert poster, it clearly shows the names of the stores and download site where the music can be purchased. The colour of all the texts is white which again makes it easy to read and it also compliments one of the characters who is dressed white, depressing colours represents the characters emotions for not finding the rabbit. We also designed a CD for the cover and for this, we decided to put the main features of the video, which from our questionnaire it stated, 'the two characters and the colours', that people remembered most. We decided that the advert posters background should be white, this will allow the white text and images to be highlighted as their is a black rectangle shapes behind them. Also, from our research, we noticed that many advert posters tend to be hunged up in lighter colour walls, as a result our text and images will stand out even more and it will differentiating it from other dubstep posters, by it giving that disorder look which our main video portrays. We decided as a group to use ' OUT NOW IN STORES & AVAILABLE FOR DOWNLOAD', persuasive language which draws the consumers to look at the poster.The use of the video, magazine advert and CD case complimented each other very well as our group came up with unique ideas to market our music and match it to what our video was all about, the use of images on the CD case was the same as the video, so this makes the audience want to watch the video due to seeing the CD case. We wanted everything to match the video whilst appealling to our audience at the same time, and with the use of different colours on our magazine attracted our audience eyes. We wanted to represent dubstep to be urban and modern and different to other types of music and we believe that we have represented this as we have made everything compliment each other from the use of colours, images, typograpghy and composition. We wanted to reach a big target audience and most people like dubstep so therefore we believe that we have achieved our overall goal to portray dubstep using its conventions in a unique way.

How effective is the combination of our main product and ancillary text?

Our video, magazine advert and CD case complimented each other as they all had rather bright colourful design also the fact that we wanted the rabbit in all three created the link between them also we used the same type of colours when designing all three. Moreover, we used the advert to attract our target audiences of young and older children to buy our product also the way in which the CD cover was designed made it look attractive, to stand out from other CD covers so this we felt also helped to make our product sell faster.the CD cover and the advert made the product sell better as the both were there to attract and encourage the audiences into buying the product, for example simple things like adding the available at itunes and HMV and other shops encouraged the audiences to buy as they now know where to buythe video we had two characters hunting a missing rabbit that was said to worth a lot of money and they went around town in search of this rabbit this we used a lot of different editing and camera angles to make our video fit and then we had to use more equipment in the studio to help us with our end product, as for the advert we wanted to make a CD with the words missing rabbit which is pronounced with an accent of the character from our video and the we made the costumes consisting of the jeans or track suit bottoms and a jacket to help with our dupstep image, furthermore the use of editing made our video more attractive to the target audiences. Also, the idea of advert was to catch the people’s attention so the colouring was very eye catching and really good bright colours to make easy to see. Also the use of colour effects and the use of colouring in our video editing and the colouring of our advert were similarly in the way that they were all rather bright and eye catching making our video and advert good for our target audiences of young and older children.

Evaluation - 1

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


Our music video was inspired by other music videos due to the type of music, we analysed music videos of similar beat to ours, and then found ideas and visual effects that we put into our work. the music videos we analysed were the similar genre as our song was dubstep and the music videos were drum n bass and modern urban music. Our video was different to most music videos as we used many different effects and cuts as this matched our type of music chosen. Our video broke away from conventions and was original as the types of shots we used and the speed of the video was varied compared to other typical dubstep and drum n bass videos. Also the use of location and the venues we shot at made our video unique, and the use of fast transactions to show teleportation. Our music video has similar conventions to videos such as Pendulums videos and also Loca People as our video as we have lots of fast cuts, but our video is different due to different content which makes it unique.

Our video has major conventions of a music video as Goodwin's theory was followed, but the lyrics and visuals were not used as our music video consisted of performance and visual narrative. Also our visuals in our video were not contradicting as it was made to be very strange and weird. The genre characteristics were not a typical dub-step one, as our video was made to be very ab-normal and crazy as the performance was two men looking for a imaginary rabbit and this makes the audience think what is happening. The intertextual reference is strange as the text for the music video links to what the lyrics are saying, and this is said with a right scene to match what is said. Voyeurism is used as two characters are in the music video and one character is competing with another to find the rabbit but the character tries to copy what the other does and fails, for example teleporting through a wall. Also the notions of looking are basically the men are hooded up and trying to hide their identities as they want to find the rabbit, but they are crazy and are imagining things which are not there and finding a rabbit that does not exist, so therefore the men have balaclavas and are well hidden with their hoods up.


Overall our media product use has been to a professional standard due to the use of editing and the amount of effects used, and the program used is used by professional's, and developing a music video like this means we have challenged forms and conventions of real media products as the time used in this project and also the locations and performance was at a high standard.