Note To The Moderator

Hello, my name is Caity Duggan and I am a student at Brigg Sixth Form. I have blogged my entire journey of my A2 coursework including my music video and promotional ancillary package, from the start of my first ideas to the final drafts. Including this note to the moderator, I have a total of 99 posts, 4 of which are evaluation posts, 75 of which are research and planning posts, the rest are drafts and final products. I hope you enjoy my blog, thank you.

Evaluation Question 1

2 seconds

Joe – To add the required freeze frames to our video we have had to remove some transitions as the transitions didn't work with the freeze frames.   We opened our video with a high angle shot of one of our stars Katie asleep, to create empathy for her as she looks vulnerable. This makes the audience feel as if they have seen something intimate that they shouldn't of seen and makes them wonder what’s going on in the music video this creates an active audience.

Caity- This breaks convention as traditionally at the start of the video the star has a close up looking into camera so the audience can tell who the video is about but we chose not to adhere to this. The shot of Katie asleep works well in creating a narrative and our TA research confirmed that they approve of the shot making our music video appeal to a modern audience.

10 seconds

Joe- The shot of Katie left of frame at the Humber Bridge breaks up the shot of her asleep and shows the video starting in disequilibrium. This adheres to Todorov’s narrative theory which states how a narrative starts in equilibrium  goes into disequilibrium and finally ends back in equilibrium. We chose to start in Disequilibrium as we felt it would create a griping narrative from the start. 

15 seconds

Caity- We decided to have our video adhere to Barthes theory of an enigma in our narrative, this is achieved through the ambiguity of whether Luke is actually there or if he’s been imagined, it is shown through the desaturation of shots . The centre frame close up of Luke established him as a star.

Joe- This is quite conventional for music videos as the form is limited for example mine and Caitys only lasts 4 mins 25 seconds. By inserting an enigma  into the narrative ,this leads the audience to have an active part as this enigma is never answered so it is left open to interpretation creating an active audience.

26 seconds

Caity- Cutting to the same shot but a slightly different angle allows an overview of the mise en scene and the location, Cutting on the beat to the same shot furthered the representation of a dream.

30 Seconds

Joe – Having Luke wake up Katie develops the dynamic of the relationship because she looks bewildered and anxious to see him. By dressing him in black we attempt to communicate to the audience that he is not really there with her. Katie's reaction also highlights that something has gone wrong in their relationship. The relationship narrative is a conventional narrative in music videos.

45 Seconds

Caity – We decide to use an under cranked shot of a cup smash to match the lyrics “Drives you mad” Goodwin states to meet conventions that lyrics must match visuals. This also represents Katie’s inner distress

52 seconds

Joe – We used photos overlaid with the video to show that there were positive times in the relationship to juxtapose what has just been seen. This montage was relatively successful and developed conventions, upon reflection we could furthed this in a greater variety of shots.

55 seconds

Caity – We had issues trying to schedule a reshoot so we used ken burns to help turn shots of Katie singing into close ups as this is a key convention when promoting a new artist.

1:02

Joe- We used the shot of Katie coming down the stairs and out the door as continuity editing

(Stop at 1:04)

This gives the sense of it being just a day in her life. Luke following her out the door builds the representation that her problems follow her wherever she goes. This relates to Vernallis diegesis as the action in the video communicates the meaning of “It’s normal to obsess over people who aren’t in your life” to the audience.

1:13

Caity – The next shot is a high angle ken burns close up of Katie singing into camera. This shows her as vulnerable and innocent. This adheres to Goodwin’s convention of singing into camera.

1:23

Joe – We cut on the beat to an extreme close up of a phone with a text saying “I’ve never been so happy” to flashback to the happier times in the relationship. This links to Allan Cameron’s Anachoric modular narrative due to our use of flashbacks in the video to show their relationship in a different time period.

1:25

Caity- Here we have the first recurring shot in our video with them walking together. We use this location multiple times in different stages of their relationship to show detrition. This also relates to a modern audience. Neale states “Repetition and difference” which applies here as we used the conventions of the indie genre to establish it as an indie video and then added in techniques like montages and repeating locations to make it stand out to the audience.

1:31

Joe- This then cuts again on the beat back to an extreme Ken Burns of Katie singing “you’ll know” into the camera creating a relationship with the audience.

1:41

Joe- We used a conventional extreme close up of a phone with a text saying "Cant make it" to further the disequilibrium we established  earlier in the video. This links to Williamson cultural signifiers as we love in a culture where everyone has a phone an sends up to hundreds of texts a day, this makes our video more relate-able to a modern day audience. McDougall stated that it is getting harder to determine a media audience as an identifiable group  so we addressed this by making sure we applied to an equal split through using both a male and female star.

1:43

Caity- We used a shot medium shot of Katie and Luke throwing leaves up in the air to break up the flashbacks and show the disruption in their lives

1:45

Caity - Here we have the second use of the wooded path in a long shot of the two of them, this time with them not holding hands and they look awkward to show they has been a disagreement in the relationship. One convention of the indie music genre is that it is characterised by being presented in a unique way by repeating shots and changing the circumstance this is our way of following this convention.

1:52

Joe - This shot shows a happier place in the relationship. Luke is the main focus in the shot. He is presented as the powerful one in the relationship. This is a traditional representation as male characters are always represented as either having power or being power hungry in narratives.

1:57
Caity- Next we have an over the shoulder shot of Luke and Katie in the park, She goes to kiss his cheek but he pulls away. This shows how he is not as interested as she is. This follows the narrative conventions of narratives similar to ours as the boy is the one who is represented as not being into the relationship while the girl is.

2:00

Joe - This fades to the third use of the long shot of them walking down the wooded path, this time they are arguing and are clearly showing how the relationship has broken down and become bad. By repeating the same location it draws focus to the actors actions, this repeating of a shot the third time goes against the conventions of the music video, we repeated it for a third time as we felt it would really help pull focus to how broken down their relationship has become.

2:07

Caity - By repeating the cup smash in reverse it communicates the theme of dreams , makes the video more surreal and abstract as well as challenges the conventions of traditional music videos as it presents the audience an enigma to figure out " If this is really happening". The use of digetic sound challenges traditional music video conventions as the only sound we hear normally is the sound of the track.

2:08

Joe - By having the medium right of frame shot of Katie on the platform it shows the relationship of the two characters and con-notates that Katie gives more in the relationship than Luke as she is the one waiting for him checking her phone this furthers the relationship of Luke not being into the relationship

2:23

Caity- The montage of text messages Link's to Barthes Symbolic code as the text messages are representative of the modern day relationship as more relationships not take place online over face to face.

2:27

Joe - The two shot of Katie and Luke, where Luke pulls away from Katie kissing him makes look the villain in accordance to the theory of Vladimir Propp as well as furthering the idea of Luke not being into the relationship and that the relationship is breaking down. This adheres to the conventions of our narrative as the male is represented as not being into the relationship, if we wanted to challenge conventions then we would of had Katie not be into the relationship.

2:31

Caity - This low angle close up of Luke makes him seem taller and had more power creating a representation of Luke being a powerful and dominant figure. Since you can apply Propps theory to our video as Luke is the villain having him be represented as big and powerful helps make the audience see him as more of a villain.

2:34

Joe - We repeat the wood land path shot for the last time here to really push and demonstrate the representation that this is a damaged relationship by having Katie storm off. We have have visuals match the lyrics here as on the lyric " Thunder only happens when its raining" we added a rain filter in post production on final cut pro to do this. This adheres to Goodwin's theory of lyrics matching visuals.

2:44

Caity - The lyric "Women only love you when their playing" is matched here as well with the medium close up of Katie laughing as it shows she is in a good mood . This shot also makes the audience feel sorry for Katie as we see how her relationship is going bad but by having her laugh it communicates how innocent and vulnerable she is. This adheres to our narrative conventions of " Relationships" as the girl is the one who is vulnerable.

2:49

Joe - the extreme close up of the text reading " We need to talk" emphasises the fact that their relationship is coming to end, and shows disequilibrium in todorovs theory

3:01

Caity- By having this flash back to the bride area communicated to the audience in black and white in makes sure the audience know its a flash back and by having them act happy and as a good couple in this location it shows the audience that this was once a happy location for them both.

3:07 

Joe - By repeating this location it juxtaposes the location and emphasis how bad the relationship has got. We reuse Barthes enigma code here as is Luke really there? or is this Katie dealing with her issues and getting over Luke?

3:21

Caity - Over the top of this we have used flashback with a vignette mask to help highlight their rocky on and off again relationship, the vignette mask soften's the edges of the shot. We used the same colour palette that we used in the other flashbacks to communicate that this was a flashback. By having Luke be the one which walks off it builds the representation of Luke being the one with power in the relationship as he leaves her.

3:27

Joe- This close up of Katie singing in the wind helps communicate to the audience how emotional she is, the gradual tracking backwards shows the  location with the grey clouds and how windy it is  to the audience which furthers the representation of her being in an emotional state.

3:56

Caity- A small vignette of Luke is visible in the top left corner. This denotes the implications of trying to move on from someone who is no longer there.

3:59

Joe- As we come to the end of the video, we used a montage of flashbacks. To make it prominent that these are flashbacks, we used a dark filter over the top of them, we used fast paced, over cranked shots to show the break down of the relationship quickly

4:09

Caity - By having the shots cut on the beat it shows how quickly relationships can change, especially in modern times. This makes it so it will be relate-able a modern teenage audience.

4:16

Joe- By having the final two shots replicate the first two shots of the video, it adds another enigma about whether the whole scenario actually happened or whether it actually was all a dream as suggested by the song title. The video me and Caity have produced does not end in a conventional way, We as an audience expect a happy ending where we see the problems resolved however be not doing this we break that convention. This again allows the audience to become an active audience as the narrative becomes open to their interpretation and how they would like it to end

4:20

Caity- We used a fade to black to further the representation of it being a dream as it was a dream like effect. In the video tried to ensure that we adhered to a common music video conventions, However there was some we felt we should challenge for example at the end of the video having the narrative in a state of equilbrium.

4:20

Joe - In our video neither are wholly good or bad , we chose to represent them like this as in a topic like relationships is not always a case of good and bad or someone being the worse person in the relationship. We felt that this would be the best way to present them as then we wouldn't offend either gender.

Evaluation Question 2

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


Evaluation
To ensure that there was some synergy between the promotional package and the music video we did the photoshoot on the same day that we filmed the video so that the stars were wearing the same costumes to create synergy between the products and also create a brand identity.

Upon reflection, I believe we should have changed our artists costumes more frequently. For example, they should have had different costumes on to show their positive moments and then perhaps darker costumes for their arguments.

Looking back, i am surprised by the fact that we only have one costume change and this is certainly something I have learnt from this project.
Synergy is created with the music video as they are in the same costumes however, a greater range would have added more dynamic images to the digipak.

 In the questionnaire's which I handed out to our TA previously, it was stated by the entire audience asked that there was sufficient synergy between the advert, digipak and video with the colours, costumes, fonts and locations. By using the colour picking tool it made sure that there was the same colour scheme throughout all products, we also used the same downloaded font on every one of our products to create a recognisable name for our stars with synergy over all of their promotional products.

Upon reflection, I wish we had used the planned restaurant scene. Although we have synergy through location with the music video, again i think this extra location would have added to the look and the hook of the products. I also think that we should have used the Humber Bridge location on the digipak to create more synergy with the music video. Another shot I really liked was the path as we used that for happy scenes and an argument yet i didn't use that on the digipak either.

Overall, I am pleased with the synergy with the music video; there is a clear brand identity and  some creative decisions worked very well indeed.

Evaluation Question 3

What have you learned from target audience feedback  




After this took place and all of the products have been completed, a questionnaire was handed out to members of our target audience for further feedback.
One question asked how well they think I have achieved synergy across all of my products, this got 100% positive feedback and everyone asked agreed that there was synergy across the advert, digipak and video so this told me that my aim for a synergetic look creating a recognisable brand image was successful.
One thing I learnt from this target audience research was that it was not always clear to the audience what the genre of the video was. I tried to adhere to conventions found in indie music videos in my research but upon reflection I should have used more to make the genre more clear, this is something I can develop in the future.

Another point brought up in the answers to one of the questions shows that a few people did not entirely understand the narrative of the music video. I think this is because the enigma [Barthes] was too ambiguous and it came across as confusing. Upon reflection this is something I wish I hadn't done as in my previous TA research other people also confirmed that the narrative left some questions unanswered, leaving the audience unsatisfied.

This has taught me that the video should end in equilibrium as per Todorov's theory or the audience will be unsatisfied. A few people also did not understand that the point of the stars throwing leaves in the air was to break up continuous flashback shots and represent disruption in their lives so I could make this more clear.

The least useful audience feedback was probably Twitter. This focused on consumption and yes, in the real media world, we had to think about how our music video would be distributed. However, as far as creativity went, this was not as helpful.

Overall target audience feedback has been a very helpful part of my production. The most useful TA feedback was definitely from the focus groups. this allowed me to ask specific questions and to record detailed answers. this type of qualitative research was invaluable.

Their honest opinions about what would or wouldn't work in appealing to them has helped me edit and change a lot of aspects in my music video and digipak. I am now a lot more confident in what would appeal to my target audience, I could have made more changes e.g. more costume changes in my music video and also adhering to more indie genre conventions. Over all after listening to my TA, I have changed my products in a lot of ways suggested in my feedback that have made the overall package more successful in attracting an audience.

Evaluation Question 4

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

Research and Planning

Construction



Evaluation

Evaluation technologies from caityduggan

Final Music Video

Final advert for the digipak