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Final Video

evaluation

My media product (video) uses a variation of conventions; these include costume, editing, location, cast, visuals, mise-en-scene, and cinematography. The main convention I followed was the style of video, I chose to do a performance style video, in which the artist represents herself (represented by my sister in my case) and performs the song that the video is promoting. Performance videos are arguably the most popular style video. The cast I required consisted of one female. Due to society in the modern media world and as Laura Mulvey (film theorist) suggests “Women are objective by the camera lens and whatever gender the spectator/audience, they are positioned to accept the masculine point of view”, this is backed up by John Berger’s, who has been labelled “one of the most influential intellectuals of our time”, quote “men look at women. Women watch themselves being looked at.” These two theories that apply to my generation more than any other strongly encouraged me to cast an attractive young female for the role to visually appeal to my target audience. This led me to cast Chloe Pir, who is generically attractive, photogenic, young, confident and coincidentally my younger sister. Although she is attractive, portraying voyeuristic qualities was not my aim, which generally challenges conventions of today. I deliberately avoided this because I wanted the character to have a vulnerable air about her as to reflect the meaning of the song’s lyrics; she also has doe like eyes which makes this successfully achievable. The costume I chose to use, due to not having a budget, was from my own wardrobe. Seeing as though the target audience were people that were the same style/age/genre as myself/peers I deemed this suitable. The clothes the artist wears should be complimentary and if needs be set the mood. I dressed Chloe in 3 different outfits, each of which was thought out thoroughly. The first outfit was a plain black vest as I wanted focus to be on the face, the second a long sleeved high neck white lace top, this was especially effective as the white lace could be reminiscent of a wedding dress/representing virgin like and pure qualities, supporting the vulnerable feel. The white also contrasted with the dark background she was placed against, the final outfit was a Victorian style tea dress which boded well with the tea party mise-en-scene which was slightly inspired by Alice in Wonderland. The dress tied at the neck with a bow, this was again to avoid exposure leading to voyeurism. If money wasn’t an issue I would have styled Chloe in Kirsty Doyle’s “The Cecelia Dress” £390 and Black Victorian tailored dress by the late Alexander McQueen £1,085. The location followed basic conventions as I used a white wall in my house, which was passable but ideally I would have liked to film in a large studio white walls and floor, this was also inaccessible. The location I created, representing a night sky and stars was made using a velvet blanket on the floor with strings of white fairy lights, again, ideally I would have liked to use numerous amounts of lights in a dark studio, with mirrored walls. The other location was at my dining table representing an Alice in wonderland style tea party, with considerable amount of thought on the mise-en-scene using lots of tea cups and pots, also white lilies scattered on the table, tying in with the “pure” ideology created. The mise-en-scene I used was used to emphasise an lifestyle to aspire to and represent the artist in a way to satisfy the target audience and promote my artist well. My editing was a major part of my video, I used Adobe Premier Pro to adjust a lot of the contrast and colour to set the mood and create atmosphere. Other features of my editing that follow basic conventions are faced paced straight cuts, fading in and out, fading to black, overlapping, having the shots fit with the tempo of the music. Timing is an essential asset of music videos, I took this on board and made Chloe’s blinking in time with the sound of the heart beat at 2.32 and 2.35, although this is a minor detail and is likely to go unnoticed by the majority of people that watch it, I feel attention to detail is valuable. Initially I was going to use a tripod to film my video, but due to the movement within the performance I felt it would be best to film it free hand to capture maximum movement. Aldo hand holding the camera gave a more personal feel to the whole video as I felt hat If I had used a tripod the overall effect could be quite stiff and cold. Ideally I would have liked to use a floating camera to follow Chloe's momvements.
I feel that the combination of my main product and ancillary texts are effective as the relate to each other strongly as I decided to use stills from my video to use for the background of the CD cover and posters. The stills were from shots that reoccur creating a motif feel. I feel that the product covers represent the artist well and appeal to my target audience (14-26 year old indie types) thoroughly.


I conducted my audience research in the form of interviewing, this gave me that chance to collect qualitative data, which is more detailed than quantitative data (consisting of numbers) and goes into much more detail, specific opinions and feelings can be recorded. Although my feedback was of quality, the sample was not representative as I used an opportunity sample of people within college ranging from the ages 16-19 years, this is not a strong representative sample meaning the results may not be as valid as they could be. The questions I asked included “did you enjoy the video?”, “what would you improve?”, “what was your favourite part of my video?”. 90% of my sample did enjoy my video, points to improve included better lighting and better camera work and the favourite parts varied greatly as everyone liked a different part. I am pleased with this feedback as the majority of the audience enjoyed the video therefore I have fulfilled my aim in regards to appealing to my target audience.

I used a variation of media technologies throughout the production of my portfolio, learning how to use some of them throughout the production of the task. These include software such as Windows 7, Adobe Premier Pro, Matrox editing tools and Photoshop CS3, hardware such as miniDV and . I used other forms of media technologies such as youtube.com and blogger.com, both of which are examples of web 2.0.
I used Adobe Premier Pro to edit my video using tools such as the Fountain Pen Tool, Colour Corrections, Speed Duration/ Reversing speed and cutting. I used photoshop to create and edit both my ancillary texts, using colour and light adjustments. I used youtube to gain ideas and inspiration by watching other videos.

final poster

rough drafts

analysis of magazine adverts

This is a magaazine advert promoting Florence + The Machine's new album and tour. They have simply placed the album cover in the middle of an A4 page and added the band name at the top and information in white font, centered.

This is Fleet Foxes' promotional magazine advert. They follow exactly  the same conventions as Florence and The Machine's.













White Lies' promotional magazine advertisment is very similar but the album cover is the whole background of the page.

production of covers and final cover

This is my final cover for my video, it was inspired my Meg and Dia's album. I used the same cosmos backgroud as before but inverted the colours to mak it look sparkly and overlapped it with my image from the stills.

This cover was inspired by Marina and The Diamonds. I edited it heavily, increasing the midtone contrast to the etxtent that the photo looks more of a drawing or creation, I added colour to the cheeks and lips to exaggerate tis effect even more.

This cover was inspired by Norah Jones's cover, I have used an image from a still from my final video. I chose to do this instead of trying to re create the image for maxium accuracy. I edited the image lightly, adjusting the midtone contrast and saturation, lowering it slightly. I then simply added the title of the song "cosmic love" in white Edwardian script. I may use this as my final cover.

This cover was inspired by the feel of Deja Entendu, being unearthly. The background of space and stars also is relevant to the lyrics (the stars, the moon, they have all been blown out...) and the title "cosmic love" referring to the cosmos. Again I used a still from my video but edited it quite heavily to fit in with the background using blue tones.

This was a practice, I have no intention of using it.

rough drafts

ideas

These are examples of fonts I am considering using. They are all script/handwriting style fonts as opposed to an "arial" style font, which has also been used in the examples of CD covers I anaylsed. I have chosen Edwardian Script as it is attractive and swirly but still neat.

These are some print screens of stills from my video that I may use for my cover.

analysis of cd covers

All of these albums target and appeal to the same audience as the artist I have chosen to use as the track for my video, they are all within the same sort of genre bar Norah Jones. I have analysed the aspects of the covers that are apparent and picked out features I would like to use as well as avoid.

This is the album cover for Deja Entendu (2003) by Brand new, and also my favourite album. the graphics are completely constructed/photoshopped and do not represent the artist or have any relevence to the songs/lyrics, however, I enjoy the unearthly graphics. The completely uppercase text in white on the dark background, centered at the top is also interesting, as is the high contrast and clash of colours.

This is the album cover for Paramore's newest album, Brand New Eyes (2009). Again, the image is irrelevent to the music or artist but is still appealing. The use of fonts (edwardian script and arial) are particularly attractive, especially in lowercase. The image and text are also more effective due to the plain background and simplicity of the overall cover.

 

This is Norah Jones' album for Come Away With Me (2002). This is represents the artist completely as the main focal point is a portait of her. The photo is taken using soft lighting from the right, casting shadows and then edited exaggerating the contrast already within the photograph. Although the photograph is very appealing and Norah Jones is generically attractive,voyuerism is not a facet of this cover. She is potrayed as somewhat innocent and angelic thanks to the colour scheme and lighting. The use of white font against a black background, again,  is effective. This time there is a mixture of lowercase and regular case, as there is fonts, using a handwriting style font and an arial style font. I also like the none standard positioning of the album name.

 

This is Florence + the Machine's alubum cover for Lungs (2009). This album cover has an unusual border in which the title of the album lies in the classic combination of white text over a black/dark background. The font is in a handwriting style and centered at the top of the cover. The image inset is a heavily edited photo of Florence Welch, which has been imposed onto a fantasy background, I like the positioning of her face as it is not head on and slightly ambiguous.

 

This is the cover for Marina & The Diamonds album The Family Jewels (2010).  Although this cove looks very different to Florence + The Machine's is shares very similar aspects. The shot of Marina is heavily edited, to the extent where it looks more of a painting/drawing/andy warhol style piece of art, imposed into a background consisting of an old fashioned style floral material textured picture. The font is in the style of handwriting done with a paintbrush, and again white, contrasting with the darker, dull toens of the background. It is also simplistic as there are two main focal points (image and text) this does portray voyuerism which is not an aspect I wish to use on my own cover.

This is the album cover for Tegan and Sara's This Business of Art (2000) this cover differs from the other as the main feature is the overlap of two images, having 50% opacity each. One image is of the artists and the other is a photograph of rain hitting the ground. This image is particularly attractive due to the contrast between light and dark with flecks of light, in and out of focus, being highlighted giving a sparkly and rough effect. The text is uniform white on dark, using a simple font mixing normal case with uppercase.

Location list

I have chosen to shoot all my shots in my dining/living room which is a large room with white walls. I would ideally like to use a studio with white walls/floor but I don't have access to one.

Cast list

As this is a performance video of a song sung by an individual female, I have chosen to cast one girl.

I have chosen my younger sister Chloe for the role. I feel she would be the perfect candidate for the following reasons:
- She is within the target audience of the artist
- She is the right style (Indie)
- She is visually atractive and looks good on screen
- She is confident
- She is studying dance at school which is an advantage for a performace piece
- Because her youth (15 years old) she is vunlerable and this is portrayed in her demanour as she has not fully matured and this bodes well with the lyrics as they also represent a sense of vulnerabilty.

health and safety considerations

There are a few minor risks that the chances of affecting anyone involved are very slim.
These are:
- the step ladder could break causing the ladder and I to collapse onto Chloe
- the lamp used to light Chloe's facefall from the stool it is balanced on and crush her head
- the fairy lights could cause an electric shock

The precautions I took to prevent such accidents were to check that all equipment was safe and sturdy, which it was. Nevertheless, I got an electric shock from the fairy lights, I feel that this was unavoidable.

first shots

This is a photo my mum took of me filimg one of the scenes. This is in the dining room in my house using a dark textured blanket dotted with several strings of white fairy lights, this represents stars in a night sky whilst my sister is lying on it. I had to use these step ladders as I am not tall enough to get the high angle shot I wanted. The makeshift lighting was realy effective, using a lamp on top of a stool to cast a soft light on Chloe's face with the main lights off to accentuate the fairy lights, making them look sparkly. I have filmed 4 different scenes to my video, but still have more to film which i will do when a camera is availabe.

prop list

Prop list: dark back ground (large blanket) , fair lights, table, chairs, tea pots/cups, white lillies, mirror

storyboard

mind map for cosmic love

lyrics of chosen song & analysis

 falling star fell from your heart and landed in my eyes

I screamed aloud, as it tore through them, and now it's left me blind

The stars, the moon, they have all been blown out

You left me in the dark

No dawn, no day, I'm always in this twilight

In the shadow of your heart

And in the dark, I can hear your heartbeat

I tried to find the sound

But then it stopped, and I was in the darkness,

So darkness I became

The stars, the moon, they have all been blown out

You left me in the dark

No dawn, no day, I'm always in this twilight

In the shadow of your heart

I took the stars from our eyes, and then I made a map

And knew that somehow I could find my way back

Then I heard your heart beating, you were in the darkness too

So I stayed in the darkness with you

The stars, the moon, they have all been blown out
You left me in the dark
No dawn, no day, I'm always in this twilight
In the shadow of your heart

The stars, the moon, they have all been blown out
You left me in the dark
No dawn, no day, I'm always in this twilight
In the shadow of your heart

Textual analysis

Florence and the Machine – You’ve got the love video analysis

The video is a performance of the song with no representation of the lyrics or narrative. It is set in a large hall or stage with a large crescent shape moon covered in silver glitter that Florence is mainly singing and dancing on. The moon is very reminiscent to that of Dita Von Teese’s and other burlesque acts. The moon is also a symbol of the aging goddess. The video also has strong visual aspects of the “Diamonds are a girl’s best friend” act from Moulin Rouge. Towards the end of the video, at 2:08 onwards Florence is being raised up in the moon and suspended above an audience of unusual and quirky characters, which are also extremely similar to Moulin rouge.
























The moon has also recently been used by Black Eyed Peas in their performance of "Halfway" on ITV show X-factor on the 8th November 2009. This is now an apparent popular theme.















The video starts with a close up of florence's silhouette created using backlighting, slowly zooming out, the lighting drawing attention to her flyaway hair/hair colour resembling halo qualities. The lighting changes to highlight her face as she she looks into the camera. She then looks up to a light in a godly manner raising an arm, then lowering it as well as her head in sync to a fade to black. Singing the lyrics throughout.
She reappears in a scene change, standing and dancing in the glitter moon in a medium shot, which quickly changes to a well lit close up, using a straight cut, then again to a medium shot, using numerous spot lights from behind to accentate her movement and soft lighting on her face so we can still see the artist, making her look attractive as it accentuates her make up, which is in silver shimmering tones on the eyes with thick black lashes and peach/nude lips.
The video continues to show shots of Florence denmonstrating simple but effective dance moves, some of which are in slow motion to make them even more dramatic, from different angles and slowly panning across, and close ups when singing the words.
At 00.53 in the hall starts to fill with dry ice/smoke as she dances then at 1.01 it starts to cut away using straight cuts to florence in an ambiguous white room without the moon or spotlights.
Florence has also had an outfit change, now also wearing a floaty white dress. This scene starts with a medium shot of Florence singing and doing floaty arm movement

In this video Florence is wearing a one piece silver/white leotard adorned with silver jewels and embellished shoulders with beaded tassles, reflecting the moon and tying in with the overall colour scheme. Her stylist has twinned this with four inch silver heels, fastening with numerous straps to the ankle. Every aspect of her attire is in season in couture fashion, high fashion and high street and can be seen from Alexander McQueens runway to Topshop and Vice Magazine, also on many other celebrities. This makes Florence and the video extremely visually appealing to the modern and fashionable youth of today.

audience research

Audience research questionnaire

Please tick the appropriate box

What is your favourite music genre?  

Pop [  ]

R&B [  ]

Indie / alternative [  ]

Rock [  ]

Dance  [  ]

Acoustic/ folk [  ]

Which do you prefer?

Female solo artists [  ]

Male solo artists [  ]

Female groups [  ]

Male groups [  ]

Mixed groups [  ]

Which music tv channel do you favour?

MTV [  ]

Scuzz [  ]

Kerrang [  ]

The hits [  ]

MTV 2 [  ]

Smash hits [  ]

4 music [  ]


What appeals to you within a music video?

Performance [  ]

Live performance [  ]

Narrative [  ]

Abstract [  ]

Choreography [  ]

Interesting visuals [  ]

Thank you for your time

After explaining my brief to a group of people, I handed this questionnaire out to 40 of my peers, aged 17-21 to collect information to help me to see what the public would like to see from a music video. I felt the questions I asked/ choice of answers were direct and to the point as to be efficient because questionnaires can be long, confusing and boring. I feel i have effectively achieved valid results.
The results were as follows:
Favourite music genre: Indie/alternative
Favourite type of artist: Female solo artist
Favourite TV channel: 4 music
Music video appeal: performance & interesting visuals

I am pleased with the outcome of these results as I can now gather artists i think would be suitable candidates for the soundtrack and style of my music video. They must fall under the category of Alternative female solo artist.
After collecting a list of artists I asked the same people which of the following they prefer:

- Marina & the diamonds
- Ellie Goulding
- Laura Marling
- Regina Spektor
- Paloma Faith
- Florence + The Machine
- Lilly Allen
- La Roux
- Adele
- Little Boots
- Lady Gaga
- Imogen Heap
- Pixie Lott

And the winner was...
FLORENCE +THE MACHINE