THE CONCLUSIVE BLOG TASK

“The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs. There’s also a negative side.”
-Hunter S. Thompson

As the famous pop music journalist Thompson says in this piece of gonzo journalism that he invented, pop music is business that is all about money. Our pop video had to gain an audience to get money. Our pop video also reflects in part Thompson's view of the human race. In the literal sense our pop video follows the idea that ‘thieves and pimps run free’. The narrative of the video can be seen as one where each is for their own. To survive as an individual, with no money, security or health. The progress of the blog explains this in many ways…

The blog from this year explains everything that I have created and how within that I have researched, produced and published it. It reflects how my ideas have developed and what I could have improved if I were to have repeated it. After seven months of hard work and motivation in the write up’s in the blog and the finished product of the pop video I have finally come to an end. It is one that I am relatively satisfied with and feel confident enough to use as my Media coursework. However, I have come across many minor problems, but one that I was more of an issue was to do with the location of the filming of the pop video. As a group, we had trouble in finding and securing a location for the shoot. Initially, we had a location but we were told that we did not have permission to shoot they for the day. Over and over again we found new locations that fitted our narrative and theme, but again we were rejected due to filming purposes, the amount of people who would be on location and the age of ourselves; these all discouraged many of the industries and councils and prevented us from using the area. Finally, we found a perfect location on the same land as one of the boarding houses at school. In all of the locations that we found, this was probably the most accessible and easiest to film in. It was a two minute drive from school and we had all permissions guaranteed to film how ever we needed.

Overall, the creation of the pop video, blog, digipack and advert it has been a long and painful piece of work. In retrospect I could have done it differently, but I am happy with the works as a whole.

BLOG TASK THREE; AUDIENCE. WHAT I LEARNT FROM MY AUDIENCE FEEBACK.

To asses audience feedback we took data from various sources – YouTube, a Focus Group, our peeps and our family. I tried to use open questions and a thorough discussion with all members of the focus group through out and realised this was a small scale trial of our pop video and ancillary products.

Our target audience considered of mainly male 16-25 year olds who may live in London. Most being lower-class youths who’d be seen as CDE in the scale of Jictar. Jictar separates audiences in terms of class. Those being ABC would have a higher education and stereotypically a richer generation. Our pop video however incorporates CDE, those who possibly reflect the gang members…under-educated, not very wealthy and holds poor morals. We suggested that this would our target audience because of the similarities of the gang members and there ability to relate to them, but of course we know that our audience could spread to a much wider population. An example of this would be our Focus Group members who were mainly male 17-18 who lived in a well rounded background. In terms of Jictar they would sit in the BCD area. By their responses they enjoyed it and understood it, so it is a pop video that can relate to many other audience members than just the CDE arena.

With six weeks gone by since we uploaded our video we have successfully achieved 849 hits and a lot of positive feedback. One saying… “Coming from an artistic background i think you should put this forward in the Baftas for best short film, great directing by the way.” And another saying “this is amazing”. All of the comments have been very positive including one giving us a “8.5/10” This was a great opportunity to allow others to give general feedback that was not bias in any way by the school or the students.

Within the Focus Group session we wanted to address and discover whether they enjoyed it, if they understood the message, the narrative, the representation of the characters, the performance elements of both the DJ and the gang members, the genre of film, the technique of filming and any general conventions of stereotypes that we followed or subverted. Finally, we wanted a honest opinion on how any part of the vide could have been improved.

The Focus Group consisted of six students (four male, 3 female). We handed out our ‘questionnaire’ of ten questions individually to every member. We allowed them to watch the video once and gave them enough time to fill it in. We only wanted a general gist of their opinion and what they read from the meaning. Afterwards we had a more in depth discussion of their answers and attempted to dive deeper in to their personal responses. We achieved some supplementary information in addition to the questionnaire, because I think many felt more obliged to give a verbal response. We knew that using both techniques would give us the widest breadth of answers and feedback from audiences that we were actually targeting! One male student aged 17 from London said “it conforms to stereotypes and is a edgy and exciting video.”

We tried to use the theory of Blumer and Katz on “uses and gratifications” to assess our audience response. Blumer and Katz say that audiences respond in four ways. The question was did ours respond to our pop video in this way. Blumer and Katz identify four ways that the media is used or gives gratification.

1) The audience identifying with the characters on screen. We were trying in our pop video to get the viewer to identify with the gang members who behave rebelliously and on the ‘edge’ of out Focus Group, 4 out of six identified with the image.

2) Diversion – a form of escape or emotional release from everyday pressures. The video, especially to those in the CDE Jictar position would see this video as form of escape. Something that they may look forward to doing in their spare time, or something that they could just relate to as a means of release from the pressures at home or school.

3) Surveillance – A supply of information about ‘what’s going on’ in the world. For many of our untraditional audience members this video would most definitely be an in-sight to some teenager’s behaviour. As a complete generalisation of teenagers it could be very misleading, but something that could open up many people’s eyes to the realistic truth.

4) Personal Relationships – Companionship via TV personalities and characters, and sociability through discussion about TV with other people. This may not directly apply to our video, but I believe that the video can be heavily discussed with a large age range of people. Discussion topics could include social behaviour, juveniles, security and curfew’s.

Stuart Hall would suggest that the production institution encodes a message though the media text. This offers a preferred meaning and may be actively decoded to audiences. In the process of activation the meaning can be accepted and called the dominant reading or rejected and called the oppositional reading. On the other hand however, the reading can be ‘negotiated’. So in terms of our pop video the preferred message is that the DJ leads the gang members into ‘war’ and encourages aggression through the fast moving music. The oppositional reading, however which most of the females of the Focus Group seemed to read was that the DJ was simply a second narrative that played the music and the gang members were fighting one another for unknown reasons. However, the males saw the DJ as one that indirectly lead them to their fait and then left them once the confrontation began. As all the male perspectives saw it as the preferred meaning, we concluded that the video is very male dominated and that it is actually targeted to the male gender!

And finally, Aristole's theory suggests that the goal o agumentaive writing I to persuade your audience that your ideas are valid, or more valid than someone else’s. The Greek philosopher Arisole 2,000 years ago divided the means of persuasion, appeals into three categories; Ethos, Pathos and Logos. Obviously, Artisotle did not apply this to pop videos, but I can be applied via his theory.

1) Ethos – This entails the idea of credibility. Audiences must respect the character t be able to understand the narrative. In terms of our pop video, I believe many 1-5 year old males can most definitely relate to the characters. Like I mentioned before, we did aim the video at students in sixth form or older who may be interested in rebellious behaviour and bad habits. I could also apply to the DJ. Thousands of boys grow up in ore of DJ’s and may look up to our characters as someone they’d like to be. They’d show great respect towards them and be able to relate to the video better and in turn understand the narrative clearly.

2) Pathos – This means to appeal to audiences through the reader’s emotions. The high drive and build of energy can ‘pump up’ the audiences and encourage them that they are on this journey of rebellion too. The excitement grows through out the video and helps audiences to feel a part of the narrative.

3) Logos - This describes the idea of using words and vocabulary in persuading by the use of reasoning or speaking. However, with the song including no lyrics this cannot be applied.

I know it seems strange to use the ideas of an ancient philosopher, but I do think that pop videos run on ethos and pathos as the main ways they attract an audience.

Overall, I think the meaning that we tried to give across was successfully accepted and the general gist of the video was popular with our Focus Group and other outsiders. The YouTube comments were positive with great reviews. However, I think that if we were to re-shoot it we may have created the narrative a little clearer to really underline the idea of two gangs who are being lead by the music.

DIRECTOR'S COMMENTARY

The director’s commentary was a way to help audiences to understand the narrative and message of the story line. It is a verbal analysis of the narrative and continues through out the video whilst different aspects and elements are portrayed. It may even help some audience members to understand more than just the preferred meaning. It has a slightly edgier depth to it that possibly would not be recognised in the first viewing. After all, if audiences are not captured within the first playing of the video then it simply was enjoyable or gripping enough. It enables anyone to learn a little more about the narrative and why specific actions took place; like the song choice or the shot techniques. Two of the male members were used to record the commentary to really drill in the idea of a ‘mans world’. It may seem a little sexiest, but the video only incorporates the male gender to portray more aggression and violence. The video had intentions to follow the stereotypes of the male force, so the commentary only encourages this strong theme.

BLOG 2 - HOW EFFECTIVE IS THE COMBINATION OF YOUR MAIN PRODUCT AND ANCILLARY TEXTS?

MAGAZINE ADVERT

When creating the Magazine Advert, I had in mind the idea of following the rebellious theme all the way through. As a group, we decided to use the front cover of the CD as out advertising campaign. As it had already been edited for the cover, we simply placed the photo on to a portrait A4 sheet in InDesign. I was assigned to choose fonts and the main layout of the piece; after hours of searching for an appropriate font I found one. I think that it is ‘gritty’ font that represents what the band is about. Even though it may seem like a very particular part of the poster, it is a key element of the design. With most of the poster representing the image and the font, it is important that I correctly reflect our idea. The photo is placed in the far right t convert many stereotypes. To follow our challenging conventions theme, I thought it was an appropriate stimulus for audiences. As well as this the font sizes between the band and the title of the song are different. Again, I think that this converts many advertising campaigns for pop stars in this generation. The font is normally the main article of the poster. It is to imprint in peoples brain; something that grabs their attention and remains with them to pass on to the next person as a means of word-of-mouth. (advertising) with ours however, the smaller font may not grab peoples attention naturally, but if they take time to read the poster, it will imprint in their minds because of the uniqueness. Hopefully, it will be remembered because of the new design layout – separating itself from the millions of advertising campaigns in the media industry today. The use of semiology is where I think the poster excels. Even though, at first glace many will not realise that the poster is challenging conventions the use of semilogy aids to the imprinting of the imagery and in turn the band and their music.

The advert is aimed at ages 15-25, those who stereotypically are known to cause trouble in communities. Targeted at this age group, the magazines that would print the advert would be NME and Q. Magazines that are targeted at similar audiences. As well as this, both magazines include articles about music and clothing; both of which are included in the magazine advert. If it was printed in a magazine, it would successfully root down the brand’s name and image. It would also draw in more ticket sales when advertising the tours dates on the bottom of the advert. Advertising for tours helps prevent illegal downloads and increases profit income. Research shows that the total box-office slaes of the world’s top 50 tours profited $2.93 billion. These included Bon Jovi and Michel Jacksons This Is It Tour on DVD release. Not only do the tickets provide a large profit for artists, but the additional merchandise increases sales.

EXPLAIN WHAT THE BRAND OF THE BAND IS THAT YOU ARE TRYING TO PUT ACROSS

The first page of the Digipack is the first element of what the audience will see so we decided to use the DJ as our representation of the band. It has been discussed previously, that although The Bloody Beetroots are a band, we wanted to keep them under the radar with no identity. So, instead we have used the DJ, our main performance narrative as the face for our band. Of course, the front cover must represent the band in a positive, true light. For us, the band was rebellious, edgy and independent, which we tried to portray in the front cover. It is important that the front cover depicts what we intend to show in the video. So in a way we needed a photograph that summed up the video.

The inside left cover reflects our set design. It represents the DJ’s ‘home’ in which he makes money from playing music and lives independently. In a way, our video portrays the idea that without music there is nothing. In terms of our narrative, without the DJ/ The Bloody Beetroots music would not have been present. On another hand, however it could be suggested that he music encourages youths to run riot. Either way, it is for the audience to react personally to the video and produce individual responses. We have included a speech from Marianne Willamson that we thought summed up our video very well. It is almost a synopsis of what our video represents and the attitudes many gangs have towards communities and laws.

The inside right page has been kept very simple. With the majority of this side covered by the disc, we used a plane image of an empty stage with energetic crowds. So, with the CD you can see just the excited crowds, but without the CD the stage is anticipating the act; maybe The Bloody Beetroots. The final page (back cover) shows a finished production. The DJ’s headphones are placed onto of the decks. It shows that the music and rebellion is over for another night. Again, with audiences’ reactions it can be suggested that the rebellion has not stopped, but it may have carried on in another area.

The DigiPack was designed Photoshop. By using the photographs that we took on the day, we collected them all and decided which three to use. We edited slightly on the same program and added them to the page layout. With the inside right age, we searched in the internet from a crowd and stage. We saturated it to black and white and placed it in. It was an all round easy job, but as a group it was harder to decide, aesthetically if we were all satisfied with the cover. I think we tried to reflect the denotation of the general stereotype of youth and rebellion. With the use of colours, shapes and the general design, I think we used semiology appropriately. The use of edited photographs I think gave across the idea of cultural meaning. The idea that youths are superior in our society and will draw attention to themselves any way they can to cause a bigger effect on the rest of the community.

TASK ONE - IN WHAT WAYS DO YOUR MEDIA PRODUCTIONS USE, DEVELOP OR CHALLENGE FORMS AND CONVENTIONS OF REAL MEDIA PRODUCTS?

To begin the process of our pop video, we researched in other, well known pop videos that some what reflected our idea or had an element of what we were looking for. Our immediate react ion was to search YouTube for the videos. With previous experience of pop videos and music we all had a vague idea of other videos that could help us in he development. We ended up at ‘Stress’ by ‘Justice’. It was an extended video which used handheld cameras in a documentary like style. The narrative portrayed a large gang of stereotypical teenagers who were shouting, running and ruining the council estate that they were in. Personally, I felt intimidated by the gang, knowing that it was all acted and staged. But I knew from watching it, that I wanted to achieve the same response for my audience. I wanted it to be a real insight to the behaviour of gangs and for some of the audience members to be frightened and intimated like I was! From here, we knew our convention was to subvert all ideas of polished, aesthetically pleasing videos as well as following the idea of gangs and their antics. We knew that we wanted to imitate the pop videos to give plaisir, the expected pleasure to the audience as Barthes explains, and also subverted the conventions in order to give jouissance, something new or unexpected in Barthes terms.

To be able to follow and subvert these conventions we had to understand and to a certain extent learn them to be able to use them within the narrative. Negus explains them…

• The explicit and unashamed promotion of the artist’s “image” as a specific product with a brand identity, ready for mass consumption.
  
• The featuring of the artist
  
• A wide and extensive use of shot types, camera angles and movement.
  Repetition of reoccurring thematic elements and generically specific iconography.
• 
  A possible narrative structure.
  
• A possible performance element
  
• The flexibility to disregard realism!
  
• Shots cut tightly to the beat of the track
  
• Use of special effects
  
• A carefully constructed Mise en Scene appropriate to the content and tone of the track
  
• High impact instantly

With no lyrics, the song has a personal, individual message that the audiences can make independently. For us, we attempted to represent it as a liberation of freedom for every one in society; freedom of speech. To a certain extent it does strongly follow the stereotype of gang members and their attitudes to society, the idea that all aim to cause mayhem. Of course, this is not true of every gang member in our society, but to follow the convention helped us to create a more visually vivid reflection of our young society. We wanted to follow the same message The Bloody Beetroots did in the original piece.

Again, the lack of lyrics and no official appearance of the band in any kind of performance way, means the image was some what distorted. We had no intentions at any point through out the process of including any shots of the band or equivalent, because we wanted to follow the strong theme of ‘mystery’ and the unknown. I think that as audiences what the video, they start to build a perception of the band members and their attitudes; their personalities must reflect the music that they make. So, directly we did not try to give off a straight forward image of the band, but I think it is quite obvious what sort of people they are through the song. Either way, perceptions; wrong and right will be made. It is therefore up to the audience to decide for themselves.

The DJ narrative (below) portrays some on Negus’ conventions; the featuring of the artist, repetition of reoccurring thematic elements and generically specific iconography and shows that it is cut tightly to the beat of the track. The scene almost contradicts the rule of thirds in that the DJ is positioned in the middle- we wanted to convert stereotypes of composition to create a more rebellious attitude; not just in acting but filming as well. The DJ represents that band as an original stimulus. Even though the Bloody Beetroots are a band, we wanted to convey they as a mysterious couple of people
With no identity. So for a replacement, we used the DJ as a means to a visual stimulus. With the main music source it can be suggested that he is part of the band. However, we leave it up to the audience to decided if there are any more members of the group, and if so, who.

Our main scene of the burning car was an ending without a conclusion. It was be shown that the members of the gangs are rebelling against one another in terms of territory, but it is still unclear how the scene will work out. I think, that in this case we challenged conventions by leaving audiences wanting more. To not give a concise ending, yet a cliff hanger. This scene is a perfect example Negus’ convention of ‘high impact instantly.’ With no ending it is immediately up to the audiences to decide for themselves what will happen next; I feel it gives a more personal response. The mise en scene, tracking and rule of thirds were all ignored and subverted in this scene. When using handheld, it is hard to include and remember camera techniques when moving at such a high pace. The filming was more to catch spontaneity; and with the inability to re-film some scene because of the one chance of smashing a fridge, it was key that we shot it correctly to our theme of rebellion. Without any scripted or structured layout, we mainly considered what we could film, instead of how we would film it. This was fortunate for us, as we wanted to create that gritty kind of feel within every shot.

Finally, this last shot of the day was as risky one. Again, with only four flares to use, we had to ensure that we filmed the scene correctly because we had no opportunity to light more flares for a second attempt. In terms of camera movement and technique, again we were not concerned. To produce the gritty feeling that we wanted, we had to forget the conventions of filming and do our own thing. I think this is were we really started to subvert stereotypes, because not only was our idea a little controversial and different, the filming technique was too. The flexibility to disregard realism fits in perfectly with this scene from Negus’ conventions. We did have the opportunity to twist the truth and create what we wanted to do. Obviously there was structure within the production, but we were able to disregard realism.


Our digipack allows audience to understand the brand of the band. It is a way of attracting those targeted audiences. (16-25) I think this is a very accurate representation of the image and could draw in the right people. With post-production we were able to create dark and more edgy photographs than before. In Photoshop we were able to change saturation and clarity to create a ‘younger’ look. Negus could suggest that ‘the explicit and unashamed promotion of the artist’s “image” as a specific product with a brand identity, ready for mass consumption’ would fit into this CD cover. It is a attractive and colourful product that I think would stand out on any shelf and catch the eye of many audiences.