Our Pieces

Our Final Video:

Our DigiPak:

Evaluation Question One and Two:



Evaluation Question Three and Four:

A2 Media Studies Evaluation from Chris McIlvenny

During Production

We began production on our music video when we started filming landscape shots in Lady Dixon park. These shots became very effective using different filters and titles to establish the band and the beginning of the music video. These shots were very easily taken as the surroundings in the park were extremely beautiful and suits the mood of our song when the filters are added to the shots. We then filmed our narrative shots, this meant getting actors to portray the storyline of our video. Connor Carson and Bronagh Walsh two budding actors from Lisburn agreed to act in our piece, which added to the production of our video because they were so professional about the filming and took direction from myself very well, and did exactly what we asked. The lighting of our shots proved a slight problem as we wanted to shoot our narrative at night but there was a lot of lights around the area where we filmed so we didn't need to use our own lights or spots. We then filmed the band The Native for the live performance element of our video, we did this in the band's own studio, we had them perform the song Stupid Girl three times to ensure we got every shot we needed and we were able to get close ups of each band member. One problem, we had was that when they performed live the speed of the song varied at times, also they had vocal harmonies in their live performance that weren't included in the recorded version of the song. During editing we have tried out different effects to add to the video and one effect that has seemed extremely interesting and intriguing is using double exposure with the band's live performance with the landscape shots. We did this by changing to opacity of the live performance shots and added the landscape shot on top of this shot. This created a shot with two layers, which made an interesting effect, almost creating a sense of a two sided story.

Planning

Shot-by-Shot Plan:

Shot 1 - Zoom Out/Black to Holding Hands

Shot 2 - Close Up/Artist's Guitar

Shot 3 - Pan/Forrest

Shot 4 - Close Up/Boy with hands over his eyes

Shot 5 - Medium Shot/Girl running through forrest

Shot 6 - Close Up/Artist Singing

Shot 7 - Wide Shot/Artist Singing and Playing Guitar in forrest

Shot 8 - Long Shot/Boy walking through forrest shouting

Shot 9 - Medium Shot/Girl peeking out behind tree

Shot 10 - Close Up/Artist's Guitar

Shot 11 - Close Up/Artist Singing

Shot 12 - Over the Shoulder/Boy spots Girl

Shot 13 - Wide Shot/Boy runs towards Girl

Shot 14 - Close Up/ Artist Singing

Shot 15 - Close Up/Girl head in hands

Shot 16 - Medium Shot/Boy embracing girl

Shot 17 - Wide Shot/Artist Singing

Shot 18 - Close Up/Bot and Girl kissing

Shot 19 - Medium Shot/Holding hands walking away

Fade out

Indie Pop

The genre of music we have chosen for our video is indie pop. Indie pop is a genre of alternative rock which originated in the United Kingdom in the 1980s. Originally and often still a form of independent music, it is closely associated with indie rock, both genres are similar, yet there are differences between both. Indie rock tends to be edgier, rougher and harsher-sounding, contrasting the more melodious indie pop. Indie pop additionally takes influences from 1960s girl group music and power pop, often giving it retro elements, and makes usage of jangly guitars. We aim to create a music video for a slow indie pop song, with this video we could create a sense of romance and love in a romantic acoustic sound. 

With indie pop music video certain codes and conventions apply, in that a light sunshine filter is usually added to the image. Also the way in which the story of the video is conveyed is very similar in a lot of indie pop videos, a story is shown with shots of the band playing the song.

Live Performance-

It is very common for artists in the indie genre to do a live performance for their music video. This way the main focus is on them as performers doing what they love to do. It also keeps the focus on the actual music itself and the talent that the artists have. This is very typical in the indie genre as the genre itself was never about success but more the music and the passion that the people have to perform and play. A modern twist is now often put on this with a narrative included in-between to break up the music video and give it a story for the reader. Also there is more room to play around with the video if a narrative is included so many artists tend to use this technique a lot. It also helps them to compete with other genres who make narrative videos that are heavily based around a story to make it more memorable. Live performances also promote the artist as people will realise how natural they are and that they can actually sing well and sound the same when live. It takes a lot charisma to be able the play an instrument and still perform so the live performance option highlights artists talents in a good way and can therefore attract an audience.

Narratives-

A narrative video is used to tell a story throughout the video by using a sequence of images and videos that relate to the song. This is done in such a way that it makes sense to the audience so they can follow and link it to the lyrics. This is very popular with all genres as it leaves room for the imagination. There are so manny different variations of this used and there’s a lot of room for creativity which can leave a video very memorable to the audience. This is a great way of making a music video stand out from the crowd and making it popular. This is because there are many variations so you can make it as different and wacky as you like. Also, now due to new developments in technology, new storylines can be created using special effects to make the video look more realistic but also exciting. Narrative videos also hold peoples attention better in comparison to a live performance as what you are seeing is constantly changing and keeps people entertained at all times. Even people who arent necessarily a fan of the artist may still enjoy the video so this method often helps people gain success and status.

  

Camera Shots - 

In music videos extreme close ups are the most common shots used as they introduce us to characters or the artist in the video. It may be done to highlight that they are singing or may be to show which emotion they are trying to convey to the audience. Full length shots are also commonly used to show the setting of the video and also give us a clear view of the artists and their outfits. This is important as a lot of artists are seen as style icons and therefore they need to be seen fully in the video. The setting also needs to be seen as it will help us understand the message behind the video  and the reasonings for it. Crane shots are used mainly in live performances as it allows you to get the artist from many different angles and also helps to keep the focus on them throughout. This looks very effective in videos as it is very continuous and hardly leaves the artist. Tilts or pans are used to make the setting clear and can move from left to right to see the full set and get the most out of the choice of location. This can often help tell the story as it may be a key feature to the video.

Sound - 

This is obviously very important in a live performance as we are are hearing it directly from the instruments being played and therefore can appreciate the talent. Different effects can be added to the sound to either distort it, fade it or even increase it to convey different emotions in the video or even different characters if voices are changed. Diegetic sounds are also used throughout a lot to help set the scene at either the end or the beginning before the main song is introduced.

Editing - 

Editing is now relied on a lot to make a music video successful especially in the indie genre to give it that old fashioned effect. Almost all videos now will have some sort of effect on them to make it either run more smoothly or to even add special effects to make it more interesting. Fast and slow cuts between shots often reflect the pace of the music and link with it well. This helps to put across the mood in the video and also how they want the audience to feel, this interlinks with the editing used in the actual video. Effects are often added over the top of videos to make them look old and worn like they are being played from old tapes. This links into the indie pop genre and is very common in videos today. A black and white effect used to convey this but sometimes a sepia tone works too, to make it seem more rustic and raw. Special effects used in videos to make the artists fly or anything else thats unusual make it more interesting for the audience and once again highlight how new advances in technology are very important and beneficial to the music industry.

Visually, we were inspired by photographic double exposures. Fragmented portraits, created by using human figures as windows into partial landscapes, served as a great way to show characters that are marginalised or internally divided. In this style of image manipulation we would like to show the true internal feelings of our characters and double exposure is a great way of portraying this. In researching this method of visual editing we realised that a photographer called Dan Mountford was very influential in this movement. Here are some of his images:

Also, during our research of this type of photography we wanted to examine whether there were any moving images that featured double exposure. As we explored this we came across the title opening on a TV show True Detective. This features a number of double exposure images to portray the internal challenges of the characters. 

These opening credits are an interesting blend of character portraits and landscape. I hope to include double exposure either in my main product or my ancillary pieces as it is an effective way of image manipulation to create a theme for the band.

Research and Planning

For our A2 practical piece in media studies, we must create a music video. To choose the correct genre to reach a certain audience we are going to research different types and genres of music to give us an insight on what is popular and the certain conventions of these genres. How we are going to determine the type of music we are going to use for our video is to ask people from our school some questions about their favourite genre of music, and how this music is portrayed through music videos.


The most popular genres of music are:
Pop
Rock
Indie

Pop -
Pop music is typically shown as fun, upbeat, colourful and happy. The music videos for this genre is usually fast-paced and edited in such a way that attempts to make the audience feel happy about what they have watched.



In this video the colours are very vibrant, and it is edited to make the audience feel excited and to make the actions of the people on screen look exciting and fast-paced.
If we chose this genre of music we would have to make sure our video is as colourful as this one.

Rock -
In these videos the artist or band are usually featured and they tend to include many long shots, close-ups and mid shots. This is to create emphasis on the artist, location and emotions. Also, close-ups are used not only to show emotions but to reflect the words of the song with the movement of the lips of the artist.



In this video the band are the main feature of this video and keep a sense of the music. They maintain the rock vibe held by the video and they effectively use a combination of live performance and images of victims of war which work together to make people aware of the goings on in the world. The way this video is made, shows a contrast between the band who are standing together and the people in the images, who are alone. Rock videos almost always feature live performance, but they do not always feature narrative. If we chose to make a video for a song in the rock genre, we would have to ensure the live performance in the video has the energy and passion of the band when they recorded their song.

Indie-

In these videos there is very often both live performance and narrative, with also a filter of the video which makes the video have a rugged look to it. The narrative in the videos often tell the story of the song and the live performance elements are added to make the profile of the band bigger and to showcase their talent.




This video features a lot of live performance with the band showing up in random locations, playing instruments and singing. This gives the video a sense of bewilderment and is much like videos from the alternative genre. This videos colours are very bland and suit the indie genre.

Representation

Male Gaze

Some of the issues involved in discussing “Male Gaze”:

• the objectification of women-- seen as objects
• the commonality of female nudity -- display implies subordination
• internalization of the gaze, changes women's perceptions of themselves and makes them think of themselves as objects
• shift to objectification as a source of pleasure (for both the looker and the looked-at)
• men as the dominant group have been the looker (the subjects; women the objects)
• ties back to another aspect of the feminist critique of Freud-- the degree to which Freudian theory is based on visual dynamics

Film reflects the langauge of partriarchy by being bound up in the same story of sexual difference that all patriarchy is founded on.  In film women is seen as Other, as an object not a subject.  In a way she represents the unconscious of the male because she is always the object he is looking at and never is able to speak for herself.

Split between male, active gaze which looks and female passivity which is looked upon. Women are always on display in film.  Seen as objects of sexual desire; this is trasnsformed into exhibitionism.  Visual presence of female tends to stop the stroy line to dwell on the image. 

The way in which the men in the video are represented as predators and how when the female arrives on the scene their movements change from working on the cars in the garage to a making the car of the female a sexual nature. This video is a typical example of showing juxtaposition through class in a music video. the opening of the video, it shows Billy Joel looking at a poster of a pretty girl, then the camera pans across to a gang of men working on cars in a garage. then they start singing and dancing as the music starts.

As Joel start to sing there’s a high angle of a posh cars driving into the garage. so it goes from greasy men in a  garage to a very expensive looking car. then, There is a close-up of a rich women wear diamond earings and a hat, the choice in costume says a lot about her role in the video, of the ‘uptown girl’.

The 2000 remake, made by Irish boy band Westlife, it is very simier to billy joel’s version in the sense that that the performer or in this case, performers are playing the role of the working class, and there are other characters playing the part as upper class posh boys in tuxedos, who have just come from a party. This shows how class and gender has been represented through music videos.

Camera Angles:

Medium Shot - The men are living out the typical stereotype of men. They are cleaning and working underneath the car in time with the music

Wide Shot - As the fancy car pulls into the garage there is an apparent contrast on each side of the shot, on one side there is the first-class, chauffeur driven limousine and on the other side, the men and standing, staring at the car. The difference in class is evident immediately.

Close-up - The men stare at, and dance around the woman in a provocative way. This shows that the sexual energy of the men is present.

Mise en Scene:

Men - The men are dressed in typical working class clothing with overalls, gloves and dirt on their faces. This instantly registers with audience how the men are not upper class and must do manual labour, in working in the garage, to make a living.

Woman - The woman is dressed in typical upper class attire. She wears a dress, a pearl necklace and a hat. The way she walks suggests she thinks she is superior to the men according to class but as the men dance around her, she seems to drop the class barriers.