Note to the Moderator

Hello, my name is Morgan Bullock and I am an A2 Media student at Brigg Sixth Form. Throughout my journey of A2 I have uploaded all of my work to blogger. This includes my initial ideas, call sheets, storyboards, my final music video, my drafts for my digipak and digipak advert, as well as my final digipak, digipak advert and additional digipak tour advert. I have tried to make my journey clear for you by ordering my posts as I have posted my final evaluation questions from 1-4 at the end of my journey. I have 100 posts including my note to the moderator post, which I hope will show you my journey and skills I have shown/used throughout A2. Hope you enjoy my blog.

Evaluation question 1: Directors cut

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

Media script for directors cut

Morgan- 0:03 The first shot reveals the star name shortly followed by the star herself.

0.06 The conventional establishing shot-immediately sets the scene where Sophia is in the shower looking vulnerable and upset. She is also positioned in a way that shows the bruises on her body and face, which automatically shows the audience that the video is about abuse. We used Ken Burns to do this as we zoomed in to capture the upset in her face and so the audience clearly notices the bruises. This scene creates disequilibrium which follows Todorov’s theory that all narrative music video’s reach disequilibrium at some point and are usually resolved at the end.

0.18 The cut is on the beat which is another convention of music video and doesn’t use a fade which makes a bigger impact on the audience before she starts singing, the bruise is more prominent due to the camera angle. She is centre frame here and keeps direct eye contact with the camera, at this point she directly addressed the audience.

Amy- 0.23 She is now in the shower which symbolizes that she is trying to wash away her past of domestic abuse, she strokes her heard to resemble her emotional pain, this also reveals more of the bruise on her face. She then slowly looks back up to the camera and then reconnects with the audience with sadness and pain in her eyes after reflecting on her past. This applies to one of Goodwin’s 5 key aspects that make a music video successful… looking into camera.

0.27 We then see a gradual fade from a coloured image to a black and white image which symbolizes the audience looking back into Sophia’s past.

Indya-  0.28 We are then introduced to the male character Jason who is wearing a white dress shirt, opposing Strauss’ theory of binary oppositions since Jason was wearing a white shirt even though he is a cruel and abusive guy. This challenges the conventions of what represents a villain as a villain since in the world of media white normally represents purity and goodness. We positioned a lamp near Sophia so she appeared brighter juxtaposing the evilness of Jason symbolized by his side of the room being dark. Sophia is applying makeup with is a representation of the traditional woman trying to look good for her boyfriend. Both of them are on their phones which portrays the intertextuality of a modern relationship. Upon reflection we think this worked really well and showed that in the modern world although people use their phones to stay connected to people far away it may be tearing apart relationships closer to them.

Morgan- 0.32 The camera cuts to a high angle to show power and that Sophia is inferior to Jason. As he is male this angle reflects the representation of a male dominated society. The audience is now seeing through Sophia’s point of view as it is her memory since it is at a high angle it’s showing her in a vulnerable state.

0.30 During the lyrics “No matter what I say or do” the couple is shown arguing which results in Sophia getting hit. This visually shows that no matter what she says or does she will get abused. This adheres to another one of Goodwin’s music video conventions as he states that music video’s must link lyrics to visuals.

Amy- 0.35 The camera pans up as Jason grabs Sophia’s arm, his abrupt movement suggests his control of not only Sophia but of the camera itself.

0.37 There is a fade into the next shot as well as another high angle this time of Sophia showing her vulnerability and how she has lost all power. The way she is holding her face gives the suggestion that she has been hit and is shocked with the use of a highly dramatic reaction shot. She is centre frame again and she looks directly into camera to reconnect to the audience as a cry for help. During this scene we adhered to Propp’s theory as Jason is seen as the villain for abusing Sophia and Sophia is seen as the Villain. By allocating the actors certain roles and beheviors it makes it easier for the audience to distinguish between good and bad. For example the action of Jason hitting the singer instantly tells the audience that he is the villain.

Indya- 0.41 It then fades back to the present narrative, returning to the shower. When she sings “keep me without chains” Sophia looks down at her bruise and it reveals a clearer view of the bruise on her cheek.

0.59 As she sings the lyrics “to drown in your love and not feel your reign” we made this shot intentionally longer in order to relate the lyrics to the mise-en-scene of the shower, following Goodwins idea which matches the lyrics to visuals at the word “drown”.

Morgan- 1.05 We challenged music video conventions by using a cross dissolve into the next day shown through a change to natural lighting, and a new location is introduced. When choosing the location of this shot we wanted to use a red door because we thought it could symbolize the love and passion that was once there which she is now walking through and leaving behind.

Amy- 1.09 Adhering to conventions, the lyrics match visuals when Sophia sings “set me free, leave me be”. Sophia is seen walking out of the house as though being set free from her past.

1.14 We used continuity editing here showing her from a side angle and then changing to a front angle. We were very impressed that we go this to work as it took a lot of editing on Final Cut Pro. She walks away staring at the ground trying to compose herself while holding in her emotions.

Indya- 1.16 We used over cranking in this scene to adhere to conventions of a dramatic narrative, however this technique challenges the genre conventions of an indie/pop music video but works particularly well at showing her loss of hope and sadness as she walks away with her head down.

1.19 We use a cut here which is dramatic following into the next lines “here I am, and I stand, so tall” as she walks into camera. We used a long shot here because the location of the quiet forest helped us show Sophia’s solidarity and loneliness. This is the turning point in the song and it contrasts to the previous scene as she is now conventionally looking into camera and looks quite determined.

Morgan- 1.28 Here we cut the shot to the same shat but just zoomed in on her face. In our opinions this was a successful attempt at showing the seriousness in her face and by being so close to her it shows her gradual build up of power. We decided to do this on the line “supposed to be” because it shows a change of personality and emotion from the artist.

1.30 Another cut is used here and we see another black and white memory again. As we found out from our focus group they wanted to see some positive connotations of the male lead. This is why we showed a happy memory. Allan Cameron can be applied here through his idea of anachronic narrative, which in this case is shown as flashbacks. We also zoomed closer into the shot when Sophia started laughing to show that the couple were happy together at one point and their relationship wasn’t always that bad. This gives the audience another view of the situation and leaves them wondering what made Jason into the controlling, manipulative boyfriend he is in the present narrative.

1.38 A fade is used in the next shot which then zooms out using Ken Burns which not only reveals more of the mise-en-scene but also more of the star which draws the audience back to her facial expressions. This was also successful in showing that she was reminiscing due to her slight smirk.

Amy- 1.50 The next shot cuts to another memory. It’s a high angle shot to show the positioning and to represent them as a couple being in bed together. Jason is shown as being immersed in his phone again which we used to show how controlling technology is in a modern society. The audience is originally given the impression that this is happy memory until later it is revealed that through the use of over cranking that he is being abusive again. At the lyric “all my fragile strength is gone” she throws him off of her showing that she is actually standing up for herself, which is the only time this is shown in the music video. Jason is then seen falling to the pillow after letting Sophia go. He looks angry but he doesn’t care enough to go after her.

Morgan- 2.02 This scene continues from the memory however this is the part in the narrative where she realizes her strength, we are showed her change by having it in colour however this is another memory. She looks at her bruises again showing the realization that she is done with the relationship as she looks up on the like “I don’t want to fall another moment into your gravity” as if she is speaking to herself as she is talking into the mirror.

Indya- 2.15 During this section of the narrative Sophia is taking a reflective walk in the forest debating whether or not she should leave her toxic relationship. Following this she leans against a tree left of frame. When she sings “so tall, just the way I’m supposed to be” it relates to the trees, being so tall and strong.  During selection and rejection we chose this shot in particular because of the way the wind blows through her hair giving her a naturally powerful look. Upon reflection, having Sophia in this location highlighted the fact that although she is alone and in a quiet forest she is still gaining the strength to break up with Jason.

Morgan- 2.16 Ken Burns successfully enabled us to meet a key convention of a music video for a new artist- the camera zooms steadily into a close up enabling the audience to connect with Sophia as an artist and a person.

2.32 We fade to another shot during the long note to a new location. We thought this location was a prime location due to the large amounts of natural light although looking like an indoor setting. Here it is a short shot giving the audience a glance of present time, so it is clear that this is where the narrative is continuing from.

Amy- 2.36 The song now gets more intense which is show through the lyrics and speed of the song. We thought it would make a big impact if we added a new location at the climax of the song. At “everything I think I need” she looks at the graffiti of the couple’s names. “Here on the ground” when she is sat on the ground with the couples names on the wall above her and behind her symbolizing that it had a big impact on her life and was now in the past.

2.47 It then cuts back to the location where she is observing the photo of her and Jason with an over he shoulder shot. The lyrics “” you’re neither friend or foe’ relating to Strauss’ theory of binary oppositions, as shown by the picture being torn in half. This also shows her frustration as she is alone and rips up her photo, her actions contrast to the lyrics since although she sings, “can’t seem to let you go” and lets go of the picture, she still can’t let him go emotionally.

Indya- 2.52 The camera then cuts back to the previous location where we used Ken Burns to zoom out and capture the broken and vandalized wall behind her. Conventionally, she is centre frame again in the middle of a derelict wall which is a representation of how she is feeling in the relationship with Jason and how it has been ruined by his cruel and destructive behaviour.

Morgan- 3.10 This scene shows Sophia reflection upon when Jason abused Sophia and here it all started going wrong. Upon reflection I wish that we showed more of Jason’s side of the story and why he acted the way he did. This scene reinforced the importance of why Sophia needs to leave the relationship due to her reflecting on past memories of abuse. We broke the standard conventions of a music video  when we applied Cameron’s “forking path’s” theory here as this scene suggests that Sophia is undecided on what she should do with the relationship but could suggest that she is thinking more about leaving him.

Amy- 3.19 For this shot we used a close up, side angle shot of Sophia to capture the emotion in her face. We also wanted to capture the tear going down her face to represent the upset and struggle. This shows that we followed Barthes theory of signs and signifiers as the tear is used as a symbolic sign to represent sadness as this works in cohesion with her facial expression to tell the audience that she is obviously upset that she has to leave all of her positive memories behind.

3.30 This shot now fades into ken burns straight away as the shot was not very long compared to the other shots in this video as we wanted to show her looking on her phone as well as making the audience notice the expression on her face. We wanted her face to be the feature of this shot as this was the last shot of her in he video so we wanted it to be important and show her final emotion towards the outcome of the situation of her looking vulnerable and hurt.

Indya- 3.38 We then used a fade transition to move onto the next shot as we wanted to keep the audience focused onto her phone. We leave the phone in the centre of the frame for a few seconds to give the viewer time to read the text message and see why her emotion changed for the last shot. We used Facebook Messenger to represent a modern relationship as the final shot showed a screenshot of Jason’s Facebook relationship status showing him as being single, using intertextuality. If I were to change one thing about the music video it would be the clarity of this text. In my opinion the relationship status doesn’t stand out as much as we wanted it to so to fix this, next time we could use an extreme close up of the word “single”.

Morgan- 3.48 We manually zoomed the camera out to reveal the photo that had been torn in half earlier in the video either side of the phone with Jason and Sophia either side of it. This was another representation that technology has come between them and torn them apart in real life.

3.50 for the final shot in our video we use a fade transition so the shot changes to a helpline message for people who have been affected by domestic abuse or suspect it.  We thought that this would be a good idea to incorporate into the end of our music video as one of the actual music video’s we researched during the research phase had this. It is a convention of an informative/promotional music video to have text at the end to clearly tell the audience what they watched and how they can get more information.

Conventions of Ancillaries 

Architectural Drawing by morgan bullock

Evaluation question 2

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

 

Here we decided to use the digipak advert from Jessie J where she is looking into camera. However we also used her idea of having the same image from the front cover of the digipak, as the image for the main advert. We thought that this would create synergy between the two and be a good way of advertising the CD. We liked the idea of using the stars face to advertise the digipak as we used make up to make her look very appealing to the audience, as we adhered to the theory Winship 'The Gaze' as this image will hook the audience. The idea of having the stars name and the album name in the centre of the image was used in ours as we liked this about Jessie J's advert as it kept synergy with the digipak and the MV itself by keeping the same font style throughout. Upon reflection I wish that we had also used the idea of a different font style for the album name on the advert, as then it clearly shows the name of the advert and the stars name.

Additional Tour Poster

I loved by the idea of having an image above a black box for a poster, as originally we created the poster above the black box and wanted to use that. However we had to make the poster A4 so I did some research into some adverts and again I found this Jessie J one and I liked the idea of her image sat on top of the text. I used this idea to create a tour poster where the image is sat on top of the tour dates, with a black background behind them to make them clear to the audience. I created synergy between the digipak and the advert by keeping the white and purple colour scheme throughout. Also I used the idea of a black and white image to create cross media convergence with the MV.  Upon reflection I feel as though I could have also used the top image by itself for an advert and put it on an A3 piece of paper and keep it landscape.

Here is the opening shot to our Music Video. For this we kept the idea of the white font for the single and the purple font style and colour for the her name. We created the synergy between the advert and and the MV by using both colours for the stars name and the album name on the advert and digipak.



However we changed the colour slightly on the advert colour so it was darker as we captured this from a different shade of Sophia's dress as we thought that this represented her as being more mature and older.

This scene is one of Sophia's memories so we wanted to portray this by having it in black and white which is a representation of the past. We created synergy and Cross Media Convergence by using the colour scheme of black and white of the digipak and the tour poster. to the right are images from the inside cover of the digipak and we used the idea of petals to represent her as being pure and innocent. I also created this idea by keeping the image of her in colour while making the background black and white, so she is represented as being the hero and she has a dark past. Also we created synergy by keeping the same dress from the video because even though it isn't very clear she is wearing the same dress in the MV as she is in the digipak image. W tried to keep the dress in colour on the MV but the colour splashed and made parts orange so we decided not to use it. Upon reflection I wish that I used this image for for the tour poster as I feel that it is very appealing to a modern day audience with the natural background and the colour difference, as well as having lots of space around it to include features.

This image represents modern day with her walking out. We created synergy through her clothing, as she is wearing very modern day clothing throughout the present day scenes in the MV. However we decided to challenge Strauss's 'Binary Opposition' theory by having her in black clothing even though she is the hero of the video. We did this because we wanted to represent a modern day MV and more modern day audiences are starting to wear black clothes and leather jackets. 

 We also used the jacket as we liked the idea of using the fur, as we wanted to use it to cover part of her face but keep the eyes to show of her good looks and passion, as well as representing a shy side to her. We gathered this idea from a shot in Adele's 'Hello' MV as we thought that this represented mystery in the artist, as well as using eye make up to represent a powerful side to them like they are coming out of their shell.

The idea of having her eyes open on the front and her eyes closed on the inside cover came from a digipak by Matt Cardle. We liked this idea as we thought that it represented a side of vulnerability to Sophia like she has got something to hide but cannot let it out. We tried to represent this by having her skin tone seem a little darker and have more of a shadow under her eyes. When I look back I wish that I had added some more features on this page of the digipak.  

We created synergy again through the costumes used as the outfit she is in during this scene, she is also wearing in one of the digipak panes and my additional tour poster. I wanted to include as many outfits as I could in the advertising of the digipak as then this would create synergy with the MV. We used this outfit as it seemed to represent more of a middle class style of clothing and showed more of an innocent side to Sophia. We also wanted to show this as a happy memory as Jason is in a white shirt to represent that this is a good time for them. Upon reflection I wish that I used the pyjamas as an outfit for the advertisement as the shot of her in the mirror in my opinion is one of the strongest in the whole MV. Also this scene is shown in the additional tour poster, where it is used for one of the small images surrounding Sophia.

Finally we liked the idea of using the trees to create a natural representation and to represent her once being tall and strong and could easily be broken. We created synergy with the digipak through this by using the trees in the background of one of her panes to represent that she used to feel as though she was strong in the past and she has been broken. We also used the petals for the background of the back pane and the CD pane to represent nature and how she is now finally free from the relationship.

  

Evaluation Question 3

Q3 evaluation from Morganbullock

TA research (additional)

These are some additional TA sheets that we created for people in our TA. This was recorded after the MV had been created so we could ask people about what they thought to it. From this we found out that generally the response was positive as the questions we asked were about the synergy and the overall tone of the MV. 

I felt we met the genre conventions very well. Most people believed the costumes and locations fully reflected the genre of indie pop.

Additionally, the TA believed the  locations worked well with the lyrics. Throughout the production of this MV, TA feedback has been invaluable at helping me to make successful creative decisions. I first asked the TA focus group about these locations in the planning phase. The feedback at that time, enabled me to choose settings that would add to the narrative and reflect the lyrics. 

 I feel that we created good representations through the colours used throughout the MV. Originally we were going to use strong green colours for the ancillaries and colours throughout the video, however our TA thought that this showed too much jealousy so we decided to go with pink and purple colours to represent her innocents and good will. I feel the TA feedback was helpful as we successful created synergy                                                                                           between my ancillary products and my MV.

Overall we had positive feedback especially on the synergy that we created between the fonts and images on the MV and the ancillary products. Even though there were different answers for when we asked the audience if they could identify the genre of the MV they still got it right as the main genre of our song is Indie Pop, Some people identified the song as a ballad, which our song also is however, it is possible that we could have developed Charlie's costume further as Indie. 

This was useful as this gives us some feedback on what we could have done differently which has been helpful for our evaluation of the MV.    

Evaluation Q4 - Research and Planning, construction and evaluation

For me the most useful site was Blogger as I used this to analyse my music videos such as Geri Halliwell's 'Raining Men' and Cheryl Cole's 'Parachute'. I analysed these for conventions and representations shown throughout the videos. However I also found YouTube very useful as I used this for my research, so I could gather research on what I need in my music video. I had problems with Poll Daddy as I posted some TA research on this but I did not receive any feedback from anybody. I also had problems with YouTube as some videos were restricted so I could not watch the official video. But upon reflection it was very successful as I could still analyse videos such as Taylor Swift's 'Shake it off' and Adele's 'Hello' for shot types and locations. Celtx was useful for when analyzing shot types of a MV, which I used when analyzing 'The One that got away' by Katy Perry as there was a wide range of shot types used in this. Slidely was fun to use as I used this to create a slideshow of locations that we would use for our our MV as well as putting a song with it.

Q4 part 2

Making of

These are some production stills of us on the filming days. I feel that my skills developed throughout the filming process as I came across problems and I overcame them to make sure I captured the best shots possible for each scene. 

In this production still I wanted to capture Sophia walking from her house to show that she is leaving and walking away from Jason. Originally we tried panning and tracking Sophia with the camera as she walks away. However the problem with this we had was that the shot dragged out too much and we could not capture her leaving in time. We over came this by cutting from Sophia walking from the house, to her walking into camera to show that she is walking away. 

This is a production still of us filming the abusive scene of the music video. We were very limited in space due to the room being quite small. We had the problem of finding the best camera angle to film the scene, so we tested a few different angles such as low angle and side shot, until we decided to capture a high angle shot of Sophia and Jason arguing. We felt that this showed power and represented the vulnerability of the scene.

In this production still we are filming the memory of when Sophia and Jason are cuddling in bed. This starts as a happy memory as they look happy in bed, however it dramatically changes when Jason starts to look at his phone instead of paying attention to her, so again technology draws them apart. We wanted to film this from a high angle as we wanted to capture them in bed together as well as some of the detail in the background behind them. We gathered this idea from the MV of 'The one that got away' by Katy Perry as we thought that this showed the love between them as well as clearly showing them in bed. We first had the problem of capturing them from a high angle as we were limited in space due to the size of the room and the position of the bed. We overcame this by balancing the camera at the end of the bed, while one of us stood on a chair behind it to angle it down towards the couple. We also pulled the tripod legs in as this was easier when steadily filming so the camera does not shake. We also had the problem with lighting as the light positions made the room either too light so it didn't look as if it was filmed at night, or too dark so you struggled to see the couple. We overcame this problem by shutting the curtains, having the fairy lights on and having someone stand on the table at the side of the room holding a lamp so we could get the right lighting from the right angle.


This is a shot of our make up artist doing Sophia's make up. We wanted to make her look as voyeuristic as possible as she was portraying a strong and vibrant girl who has been hurt. We had the problem of making bruises that look realistic on Sophia so people would believe clearly see that she has been abused ad that she has been harmed by Jason. Our make up artist had to blend some colours together to make the bruise colours look accurate and realistic, which I feel went very well. However we had the problem on the last day of filming where we had to re film a scene in the shower and we did not have our make up artist so we had to do the make up ourselves.  

This is a production still of Amy taking a picture as an idea for our ancillaries. We liked this location as we liked how the tree behind them framed the couple on the bench, which implied that it was a natural relationship at a time. This was taken on the Normanby hall filming day as we had a lot of open space, which we thought that we could take advantage of.

This is possibly one of the main production still images, as this is an image that we used for our digipak front cover and our digipak advert. We liked the background scenery on this image as we thought it was quite natural, also we thought that Sophia's outfit would be perfect for this image as we could use the idea from Adele's 'Hello' MV, with the idea of the fur covering her face. This gives the implication of her being shy but due to the strong use of make up, it shows that she is quite powerful. We had the problem of finding somewhere that was empty, as we were filming in a public area that many people visit, as well as it being a nice day and in the holidays so there were more people there. We luckily managed to find a quiet place in the woods where we could take our still images.

Adobe

Evaluation

For this question I used a word document as I felt that this allowed me to write a lot more about the technology and add more in depth analysis without being restricted.

Amy Johnson's Slidely Gallery by Slidely Photo Gallery

Final Music Video

Due to the first scene of her being in the shower, the content is restricted and we cannot view the video on Youtube. Therefor we use our hard-drive to watch the video as that is where it is saved.

Final Digipak

Final advert for digipak

Additional Tour Poster

I created an additional poster with all the tour dates on, as I wanted my ancillary to have the full package, as well as my TA to know when her tour dates were. 

Digipak draft 4

Planning: draft of advert

This was originally going to be our final advert for our digipak as I had researched a tour advert by Olly Murs who had used the digipak front cover at the bottom. However we dont think that it works with the poster and because the overall image is the same as the one on the digipak so this creates synergy with the digipak itself. 

Planning: Ancillary + Digipak drafts