Music Video finished product

Directors Commentary

Directors Commentary Script: Matrix – “The Reason”:

 

Freddy - Every stage of production in this music video has involved a range of different digital media technologies, for example Final Cut Pro, Photoshop and green screen technology.

 

Tom – During our media shoot we used a Sony FS 100 camera, which allowed us to create a cinematic, shallow depth of focus image, which consisted of HD footage. This created a professional look to our music video with the use of prime lenses.

 

Freddy –We matched editing to the pace of the song building in pace from the beginning. We did this to build a conventional representation of a nightclub using a range of camera and editing skills.

 

Merlin - This technology helped us in post-production as it allowed us to represent a highly sexualized set and seedy nightclub atmosphere.

 

Tom –Final cut pro gave us freedom to manipulate the pace of our video to not only build a conventional dance genre video but build into our concept.  . This allowed us to create narrative and enigma to represent our sexually suggestive concept.

 

Freddy - This was to sell the image of the agent dominatrix in the Video. The Sony FS 100 camera allowed us to capture the detail and definition required in suggestive shots.

 

Merlin – We constantly wanted to keep our audience on edge by showing explicit glimpses of the dancers. We did this to reinforce our concept of suggestion of sexuality by setting a tone within the music video which the audience could pursue using their imagination.

 

Freddy –We created this suggestive sexual concept by shooting close ups of their face and body and then cutting back to our Two Man Ray actors.

 

Merlin - We therefore changed the camera lens to have a clear image when doing close ups and long shots. We used long shots to establish the seedy sexualized night club set.

 

Tom – With our editing, we were able to really bring out the representation of sexual suggestion, as we were able to pick and choose with what we thought was best to perfect our concept.

 

Merlin - We tried to make our editing as smooth as possible, by cutting on the beat, cutting in direct movement of the camera and cutting on lighting flares that blinded the camera.

 

Freddy – We used Photoshop to change the green screen technology that we used, into different images of Man Ray photographs. This allowed us to emphasize a concept of voyeurism through the two boys by editing in shot reverse shots and eye line matches.

 

Tom - This added to an overall encoding of sexual suppression that interlinked with our sexually suggestive concept. 

Freddy - Using convergent technology we were able to use the captured Man Ray images and use them not only for our music video, but also for our CD digipak and Website.

 

Merlin – With all of our hard work we put in, we felt we successfully accomplished our main aim and to make our music video as professional and realistic as possible.

 

Tom - After the music video progression we felt we had successfully created a professional media product that conformed to music videos in the dance genre whilst also subverting some conventions through concept and narrative.

 

Task 4 - How did you use new media technologies in the construction, research and planning and evaluation stages

Pre-Production




The research and planning aspect was a major component of the pre production stages of our music video. I used the internet to research into Matrix and learn more about his star image and the brand image of the record label he was signed to, I did this through search engines such as Google. Music sharing websites were crucial to my research into the genre of music, for example I used YouTube to not only research our artists music and genre but also research into our artists labels channel and further develop my understanding of what genre and style of artists they were signing. Soundcloud was also important in the researching of artists, specifically I used Soundcloud to research The Prodigy as it offered a more proffessional and current release music sharing website.

https://soundcloud.com/#theprodigy

Final Cut pro was also key in the research and planning of our music video as it allowed us to edit clips of our storyboard clips together into an animatic.






Production

In the production of our music video we used new media technologies such as a Sony FS 100 camera which allowed us to shoot our video in the high definition and detail required to ensure a high quality proffessional look.

Post Production

In the post production Final Cut Pro featured heavily in the editing process of our music video to ensure accurate to the beat editing and secure the key concepts of the narrative. We used photoshop to develop the star and brand image of our artist and ensure a successful promotion campaign, I used photoshop as a creative tool to layer colour over our artist and design our CD digipack as a conventional dance genre media product. Slideshare, Sliderocket and Prezi allowed me to blog my research and planning and effectively present my concept development. Other digital technologies key to building our artists profile were Wix website design and twitter which are new media technologies and crucial to a promotional campaign for an artist within the contemporary music industry.



Focus Group 4

Focus Group 3

Focus Group 2

Focus Group 1

Task 3 - What have you learned from your audience feedback

Task Two Evaluation

Media Studies - Task 2

http://www.surveymonkey.com/analyze/?survey_id=38250065&OPT=NEW Survey Page 1

http://www.surveymonkey.com/analyze/?survey_id=38270215&OPT=NEW Survey Page 2

http://www.surveymonkey.com/analyze/?survey_id=38271753&OPT=NEW Survey Page 3

Task 3 - What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Over the next few days we are going to be creating a questionnaire to obtain constructive feedback from an audience. Audience feedback on our media product is important because it we've worked on our product for so long and know all the research and development within it where as a fresh audience will be able to feed back whether the narrative and performance elements are sold well on a first time viewing. Particularly this task is important for our media product as throughout the development of it we have struggled with the issue of explicity.

In what ways does our music video conform to the conventional form of a music video

In what ways does our album back cover conform and contrast conventions of a real media product?

The back cover of our digipack conforms to the obvious conventions of having a list of songs which it shares with both examples as well as having a barcode and record label logo. The record label logo in particular works as a marketing and publicity tool for our label and artist as the consumer can look into the label if they like the music we produce. Although the two examples don’t share this it is quite conventional to have a close up picture on the back like we have which allows us to directly influence the consumers mind set when looking through a listening to songs, which provides the right situation for them to accept the connotations that we’re attempting to get across.

However our back cover is relatively unconventional primarily through its connotations. The image we’ve selected to use is a Man Ray image which holds ambiguous sexual connotations, this allows our album to expand its audience and appeal to wider range of sexualities, allowing us to access a variety of niche and alternative audiences.

In what ways does our album front cover challenge conventions of real media products?

Our album cover shares similarities to that of Stephan Bodzins, above, particularly in the unconventional use of strong contrasting colours. The difference however is our cover is colourfully confusing and almost looks like a clown and holds intertextual references to the Joker from Batman. These two aspects work well with our artists calm collected look  to raise questions about his sanity beneath his cool façade which ultimately works as a marketing tool as it not only makes the cover interesting but on first sight presents an enigma that the consumer becomes interested in. In Comparison the Stephan Bodzin uses colour in a different manner as the colours blend into each other and look smoother however they both correspond to the high energy aspect of dance music and create an unconventional looking front cover to our digipack. The name of our artist adds to the complex nature of our front cover as the name Matrix has connotations of something that is intricate and complex. Our album cover and the Stephan Bodzin album cover share unconventional similarities such as the way the artist is pictured off centre to the side, In contrast the Carl Cox album cover is much more conventional with the artist picture directly centre. Another difference between the conventional Carl Cox album and our album cover is the horizontal square on titles contrasting with our choice to put the title down the side.  

In what ways does our front album cover use or develop convetions of real media products?

 

I added this example of an album cover from a different genre of music to show the conventions of album covers that stretch across all genres

Our album cover conforms not only to the dominant stereotype of dance music album covers but to album covers in general in terms of the artist featuring on the front cover, just like the Sven Vath and Maetrik album covers which are artists within the same genre. We’ve followed this convention to focus the front cover on the brand image of the artist as a marketing tool. We’re creating an image for his fans to follow and create a fan base underneath. Within the genre of conventional marketing tools our front album panel conforms in its use of eye grabbing contrasting colour to help it get recognised in shops and online as we can see in comparison to Maetrik’s Cocoon Heroes. Again focusing on the artists on the front of each of these album covers we can see that a mid shot photo with direct address is conventional of an album covers front panel. The use of a mid shot keeps the image of the artists large enough to notice but not so close up that they are unrecognisable. Direct address is used to make the product and artist more intimate with the consumer to try and further market and build on a fan base. The style of direct address is important as well, in Maetrik’s album he is leering and smiling which has connotations of ‘guilty pleasures’ where as our artist is much more relaxed to make him seem more accessible to a wider audience, this and his clothing give connotations of ‘trustworthy’ and ‘laid back’.  Another convention of media products is using two types of font, one for titles and one for sub text, we’ve implemented this to help the album cover conform to media product conventions and get recognised as a genuine media product, although a completely unconventional album cover can have its own selling points we felt that for it to be accepted into the media mainstream it had to convey some typical conventions.