Question Four Evaluation

Youtube Evaluation

Finalised Products

Our Music Video

Our Music Poster

Our Website
http://chchsmediagroup4.wix.com/one-point-three

Our Facebook-https://twitter.com/1PointThree
Our Twitter-https://www.facebook.com/1PointThree?ref=hl

Final Music video Draft

First draft of our music video

Below is our music video, well our first draft, we are currently awaiting feedback from the audience so as that we know what needs changing and what is good or bad about the music video. as by doing this we can improve aspects of our music video that are not up to the best standard possible. Please comment if you have any views that you want to share with myself or the group about the music video

Band Album Poster

Here is our finished poster, this poster is simple and with simple colours. the poster was created to represent the humbleness and simplicity of the band as a whole. The poster we originally created was too flashy and would typically be used for a hip hop band which we are not we wanted to a create a simple poster with a simple colour scheme that people can look at with a deeper meaning.

The poster is a type of homage to the music poster of the band The Buggles who created the poster below for their album "Video Killed the Radio-star" by doing this we are adding an element of post modernism into the coursework which is something we are looking at for the flip side of this Unit. By adding this element to the poster we are creating a deeper level and meaning to our poster rather than leaving it bland and uninteresting.

The poster is symbolical as it shows a cartoon style faces of our two band members myself and Jack, as these cut outs are what our band members are most typical seen at by people, as people see jack with his medium length hair and his beard without taking notice of his eyes or any other feature, the guitar is placed in front of him to show what matters most to him, same with the microphone as it is directly in front of my face as if i was singing but with no facial features to actually do so. The text located on the poster is simple as to not draw attention away from the band but still in the audiences attention due to the colour red being used as red is a colour that is transferred very quickly by the brain.

Group Blog Reflection

The Blog posts i have been doing on my Group Blog has been significantly greater than the posts done on my personal Blog, Its hard to time manage between the two Blogs as-well as finding time for other lessons, the group Blog work currently is mainly about looking at certain aspects of music videos that we as a group enjoy and each writing what we think we could replicate from one video and recreate this into our own music video. For example, I have currently been looking at music videos that contain transitional pieces which are often used to waste time and to show dramatic scenes such as a time lapse, The Fray you found me is a music video I am currently looking at which I think uses this editing feature well as these edits can last between 2-7 seconds and keep the audience enticed within the music video as they are in awe at the beautiful scenes. After this current Blog work is done (meaning looking and researching videos) the next phase is to find locations which we will be able to film and add into parts of the music video that we have already completed. The pictures used show the detail put into just five seconds with of footage in some music videos, the text will also give brief detail as to how we plan to recreate these scenes with setting plans also.

Unless you have amazing eyesight its probably hard to read the text in the age shown above for a better viewing experience follow the link below to our transitions  Blog post on our group website where we will have everything shown in the images below with larger writing, also we will have more detail and further images, Thanks!

 http://chchsmediagroup4.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/snow-patrol-chasing-cars-transitions.html

The Effects Debate

The Effects Debate revolves around media censorship and the way that media is able to manipulate its audience in a negative way and that there is a need to be able to control media in order to protect its audience. People who come up with the "things" that need regulating are categorised into 3 groups:

People who voice their concerns for danger within the media without having any real or true evidence, people such as Politicians, The Media itself and Campaigning groups.

People who have conducted research into effects on the media and whether things have positive or negative effects on the audience

The audience itself who are subjective to the debate, this is typically teenagers who are just experiencing a whole new world of media , the studies usually revolve around violence games such as Grand Theft Auto.

The censorship of media that is a big factor in The Effects Debate is often misunderstood and confused with similar terms such as Regulation and Classification.
Regulation is very political and is most typically put in force by government this is called State Regulation, regulation exists within media and the media in order for some things to just not be allowed within media, also media itself puts its own version of regulation onto certain pieces of media. For example video games are often given an age rating, to say what ages each game is suitable for people to play, this is known as Self Regulation.

Classification is the restriction of access of media material based on age, the main and best example of this is the BBFC who are responsible for film classification which means putting a restriction on the age of a film so as that anyone below this age is strictly not allowed by law to view this film. This is covered on all formats of film may that be Cinema, DVD or any other format.

Censorship is the most post-modern type of restriction of all the three conceptions, censorship is when people with power may that be the media or someone high up in authority control what we as the audience see, hear, say, touch and whatever else within media products

There are two philosophical approaches to this theory,  Psychological and Sociological.
 Psychological focuses on what is happening in the brain of the audience. Sociological look at the impact on the person itself and the wider look such as the effects on society, the two go hand in hand together as if a person is affected on a psychological level this could also affect a number of other people meaning it affecting a number of people meaning the effect will exist on a sociological level. An example of this is a young boy playing an extremely violent video game this is just a psychological issue at the moment as it only affects his own mind personally but if others play this game and it becomes social then that is where sociological issues come into play meaning society may suffer problems such as an increase in violence, there is no 100% way to prove this theory but there are some good and related theories that people link together such as massacres blamed on rock music etc. The effects debate is kind of like a brief insight into the other theories without going in depth or beneath the surface. The video people shows how media is sometimes blamed without any real evidence for sociological issues, Marilyn Manson was pinpointed as a cause of a mass school shooting in Columbine, USA. Without any real evidence the media highlighed him and his music as a cause of the shootings and stated that the murderers were big fans of his music which turned out to be a lie. This again brings censorship into play, as the media control what has been said, what we see without getting the true opinions of people.

Hyperdermic Needle

Hypodermic Needle if often referred to as the syringe communication model, the theory says that the media such as when watching television the media is fired into our brains like a syringe, the theory says that we are passive meaning that we are not full aware of what we are doing or what we are subconsciously paying attention to.True examples of this is Hitler and the way he got his message across to his audience in a syringe style way where he directly got his words into the mind of the audience.
 Flow chart style
Source > Message > Mass Media > Opinion Leaders > Public
This flow shows where things happen and where the audience becomes involved, an easier to understand example of this flow is shown below
Who? > Says What? > In What Channel? > To Who? > To What Effect?
This shows how mass media plays a role in manipulating the audience, this is why adverts have become so successful as we passively don't take notice but we subconsciously pay attention in our brain and for example seeing a good advert for a film and seeing it again and thinking that you really want to go and watch it.
Is when you become fully immersed within a film an example of this is the man who killed 12 people in a movie theatre in america as he became obsessed over The Dark Knight (Batman) franchise  this is because he became fully immersed within the movie and thought that this was what he was meant to do. This could not really happen to the audience of our music video. This theory is the most sensitive as it causes many deaths worldwide there is no direct evidence that it is the direct cause of an event but it can be related to several homicides. Marilyn Manson and his music were blamed by the media for causing the homicide in a school caused by school boys who were fans of his music, he was blamed despite no evidence for his music being anything to blame as his music doesn't tell people to kill others does it?

Reception Theory

The Reception Theory is often called the Audience theory and was first coined by Hans-Robert Jauss in late 1960's but was furthered by Stuart Hall who added more to the theory in terms of key items but Hans set the foundation for this. Basically includes the audiences interpretation of a piece of media as the focus point as without the audience a piece of media texts existence is pointless. A brief intro example of this is the 9/11 disaster, we all will of interpreted this in our own specific way this is based on the media that we have seen, people will have their own theories behind it but we all understand media differently compared to others who will almost usually see it in a slightly different way.

Audience's have their own relationship with media a weird one at that, we watch something that was designed with a specific meaning by the producers but that's not always the way we will receive the media text, we will all perceive it in our own way as we are all different. The reception theory is the analysis of an audience's response to media, the theory goes into detail about reasons behind why people interpret things the way they do, it makes assumptions that people who possibly grew up in the same areas and suffered the same problems will have similar views a everyday example of this is that people who were working in the coal mines during Margaret Thatcher's term as prime-minister will not like her. The theory also says that the more closely somebodies values are to the producer's of the text the more likely they are to read the meaning of that text in that certain way. An example we can relate this to is finding a person in your school who lives near you and having more in common with them and realising you like them as a friend. The clip below shows the way people perceive things in their own way such as not being able to cry.

Blumler & Katz

Blumer and Katz is often referred to as the gratification theory, the theory revolves around the audience more than it does on the actual messages and themes behind the piece of media text itself. There are commonly two types of audience interaction Passive and Active, Blumler and Katz say that the audience take up an active role in interpreting and integrating media into our own lives. The Theory also says that we (the audience) choose what media we pay attention to to meet our own needs at that specific time an example of this is being dumped by your girlfriend and listening to a sad song.
Blumler and Katz says that we use media to meet our specific needs and gratifications needed, basically we watch media to fulfil our desire of pleasure.
 "Other examples include being at the gym and listening to a fast paced song in order to cope with our pleasure desires to be fulfilled. The theory is basically straight forward and its based on many surveys of audiences, the theory existed in the 1940's and it still used as a valid theory in today's society."

Group Blog Reflection

Its been an extremely long week, we have filmed a large part of our music video so as that just seconds remain! We have recreated close enough scenes to music videos we have looked at, and done a lot more in terms of our website creation, the group travelled to Everton park to film in a variety of key areas of the park overlooking the majestic Liverpool skyline. The images shown were put on the blog post to show evidence of filming and to show that we actually have been to these places rather than putting fake blog posts up with no evidence. We are also nearing the end of production as we have filmed just 20 seconds away from what we need but we are still updating our Blog posts regularly in order to keep our target and my own personal target of top high marks and we are very much back into the rhythm of things after our Christmas break, with thanks to our teachers Mr McCann and Miss Walsh we were able to look at things we needed to improve on our personal Blogs and our group Blogs. We were told that our group blog was close to perfect and just some slight alterations and a couple of Blog posts more would boost us up to a high grade, we have been putting a lot more meetings together and having them twice a week during our free time in sixth form and evaluating our effort into the blog posts and checking how the editing and camera work is looking.

Theories

 The Effects Debate

The effects debate has three voices that consume it these three voices are;-

People who voice their concerns without any actual evidence for what it does to the audience, people such as politicians consume this group. Basically people who say stuff along the lines off "This video game cannot be sold as it will harm the youth causing them to copy it"

Those who have actual research into media such as the positive and or negative effects from media

Those who are the subject of the study such as those who consume the media. The people who are the subjects of the study are usually children who play violent games such as GTA V. 

The effects debate is simply an overview of the 3 others located below.  


Reception Theory

Preferred is the way in which the director or producer wants you to see a film so the reader full shares the views of the director.

Negotiated response is when the audience vaguely understands the directors point of view and accepts some codes and conventions of the media.

Oppositional response is when the audience fully reject the codes and conventions presented by the director.

The reception theory is the way that you receive a music video and whether you understand it or not like the meaning behind our music video "How to save a life" people may not understand what it means or what it represents. 



Hypodermic Needle

Is when you become fully immersed within a film an example of this is the man who killed 12 people in a movie theatre in america as he became obsessed over The Dark Knight (Batman) franchise  this is because he became fully immersed within the movie and thought that this was what he was meant to do. This could not really happen to the audience of our music video. This theory is the most sensitive as it causes many deaths worldwide there is no direct evidence that it is the direct cause of an event but it can be related to several homicides. Marilyn Manson and his music were blamed by the media for causing the homicide in a school caused by school boys who were fans of his music, he was blamed despite no evidence for his music being anything to blame as his music doesn't tell people to kill others does it?

Blumler and Katz 

Focuses on what people do with media rather than what the actual media is, there are several examples of this such as reading a magazine or watching a reality TV show to escape your life for half an hour this is called Diversion. Another part of this is Personal relationship such as reading a magazine about your favourite artists in order to further your understanding of that artist. Personal Identity is a further way in why media is used such as find out a new artist we never thought we would like and researching them further and finding out we actually like them. The last part of this is surveillance which sounds rather creepy but it is actually just what we all do when we read the paper such as reading out what a music artist has done, such as Justin Bieber when he got arrested for drag racing in miami.

First Shoot Reflection

Embarrassing, the simplest word I can use to show how it felt to try and look cool during a photo-shoot. Me and the group travelled to a room that was free for use and we were able to find a technician who was able to set up a sole spot light on us and we all tried to pose in our coolest indie/rock styles but we all looked embarrassing. I don't think a modelling career is going to follow this media coursework, the style we tried to go for was limited as we did not have a budget for clothes, in a style used by the script and we were then limited by our time as we had to be finished within half an hour as a class were schedule after us. We couldn't get a group photograph at that time as there was a fault with the camera that stopped us being able to put a timer on it and there was no one else available to take that picture but once we have a picture we will upload it onto our personal blogs and the group blog.

Although the two pictures are in no way similar The Script are a well known band who use dramatic poses in photo shoots, the image on the right is meant to symbolise the sadness in the lead singer (me) due to the emotion used in the song. Each photo-shop may that be professional or amateur usually has a meaning behind e.g. a theme of what the band are trying to show such as sadness, or happiness. We are going down the road of sadness and emotion as the song we are doing a cover for is fill of emotion.

Edits and Transitions

Edits are really important in music videos as a continuous story show or continuous performance many become boring and tiring towards the audience who maybe want a little bit more entertainment or a quick break. Many music videos such as The Fray- You Found Me use these types of edits such as a birds eye view looking down on a major city or a time lapse, doing these creates an one screen visual spectacle to enjoy for the audience rather than being continuously shown the same type of camera shots from the storyline on the screen the edits like the ones mentioned make the music video look a lot more professional and makes it look as if a great deal of effort has been put into the music video making us appreciate it more.

Progress

Our music video progress is coming along on schedule, we have so far completed a number of key scenes we plan to include into the music video. The picture below is just one taken from the set of where the music video is being filmed, the setting of the music video is very dark with one single spotlight coming over the top and giving a nice clean video and image. On our Group Blog we have analysed the risk assessment that comes with the setting and we are going to include other images we have taken.

Post Modernism, Romanticism, Modernism

Post Modernism is a very hard topic to understand and it confuses many people including me but the typical connotations of it are somewhat basic. There was then and then there is now, There was Romanticism which was basically surrounded by the belief that god did this and god did that, but nowadays we are more aware of the Government input and we are less trusting to things that years ago would pass us by, but just like societies' judgement has changed as has music in some way there is differences in music and not just via genre but in terms of Post Modernism.

Romanticism basically shows the artist through their songs, artists like Adele who sing it from the heart truthfully and in their own way sum up this type of music.

Modernism, artists like Eminem who have created their own format with their irony and experimentation(such as his mocking of other artists) this sums up these type of artists.

Post Modern is probably the easiest to describe, people like Lady Gaga who is their own person, not a copy and have created them self is a credit to themselves as it embraces the culture of society, Artists like Kanye West are also apart of this due to the way they "Big Up" themselves through their own ego and status this is a revolutionary idea that was unheard of .

An example of Post Modern type of music is 30 Seconds to Mars in the music video below:

This music video contains basically a documentary throughout it, this shows the originality of the band even if it wasn't their own idea to create this. 30 Seconds To Mars also uses post modernism key terms in their music video as they acknowledge that the "City of Angels" AKA Los Angeles is a hyper reality meaning it doesn't truly exist in the way that many people believe that it does. Many people are homeless and have lost their dreams there and this music video helps to show this. It kind of exposes the truth of the city rather than it be viewed in its Hyper Reality through rose tinted windows, the music video focusses on the views of many celebrities and also people that we would consider lower classes to get a good comparison from the people who live or are from there

Real Final Coursework Research

This music video is an A2 media studies level music video produced as a final coursework attempt by students just like me, this music video is done to a good standard of production through all the key aspects needed such as lighting, sound, camera shots, edits and even the acting involved.

Lighting the lighting from first view is very full so doesn't make anything stand out and seems to be of a low production level but this is probably down to two things either the camera was not very good so the resolution and quality was very low so it doesn't make things stand out very well, or the music video itself was done this way to fit in with the dullness and low tone of the song itself to make the two work in harmony together. The flashbacks done in black and white was a very good piece of production as we as an audience can understand that it is a flash back due to the dramatic colour change.

Edits, the edits used are extremely good and creative they are used all the way throughout the music video from the very start, the first noticeable one is when the camera's resolution quality is turned better throughout the filming so as that it zooms in to the main actors face. Another good piece of editing is the extremely quick quick cuts used to create the bin becoming full of paper balls. The use of Photoshop and the way it is incorporated into the music video as still shots was very very creative as it lets us as audience see happier times of the main actor with what we find out to be his former girlfriend. overall the level of camera edits was very creative and also gives myself ideas that could actually be produced during the filming of my own music video. The eye-line match used later on in the music video helps us see the close relationship between the two characters as it uses a shot reverse shot of the two characters looking back at each other smiling

The props and clothing used is very indie as it does not fit in with the normal song, the actors are wearing goofy Christmas hats despite it not being a Christmas song the outfits as well show us how the couple were "meant for each other" and also how the both matched in the relationship as they were both equally weird rather than it being a boring relationship, The music video production is very indie with very limited funds clearly available it shows that this group adapted well in their production in terms of setting as filming it in an open setting helps us see it as more of an indie music video and helps us believe it more and shows it taking place in real world instead of a Hollywood set.

I think the music video could of been improved if the camera the group had available was of a better quality and if the acting was slightly better as in some moments it seemed to pause on specific scenes for too long because the actors took too long during their queues, the lip syncing was very good which is usually one of the hardest aspects of creating a music video but this group done it very well even if it wasn't used a lot. i felt that more lip syncing was what this music video lacked as it focused too much on the relationship of the past rather than what is happening between them two now.
Overall rating from myself 8/10

Music Video Analysis - One Republic

One Republic- Stop and stare
Within the opening 30 seconds of this song it is clear that there is going to be a very powerful message portrayed in the music video throughout he characters shown we are shown extremely quick jump cuts of random images that at that time make no sense to us, there are numerous stories occurring throughout the music video of different people but they are played by the same person.

The lighting in the music video is sometimes very dull such as when he is in the bath to show that this specific character is in a very dark place in their life. The lighting changes throughout but still relatively stays dull to un-promote the happiness in this song.

The lyrics contain very subtle elements that in turn tell us the true meaning of the song, the lyric "Steady hands just take the wheel" contain that the person in the music video is unsure of what they're doing and in turn is not on a steady path in life. The person in the music video is constantly Stopping and Staring in life and because of this he has no idea how he got the life he has now and he wants to make a change in life. The different characters although played by the same character represent different people in the way they could possibly "stop and stare" in life the song is suggestively a wake up call in that the persons life needs change for the better or they shall end up in a grave in the middle of the desert without any people close to them to miss them.
Another powerful lyric used is "Time to make one last appeal....for the life I lead" this shows that this is the persons last chance at redemption to live a life worth living otherwise they may as well not be alive and the man in the bathtub is a representation of suicide of where the current life he is leading may take him.

The setting of the desert also connotes a lonely place which could may well represent some people personalties and their own life as they have no one to share it with so this is the reason they just walk through life without enjoying it. The crowd setting represents the way people from all sorts of life can blend in together without any of them standing out. they are all Stopping and Staring through the window of their own lives.
 

Production Log

Here is my Production log, this is a way of making sure that people in the group are organised and so that they know where to be and when. By creating this production log this meant our organisation was up to a great level and that we can get our music video completed as soon as possible.