A2 Media - Music Production

Wednesday, 28 March 2012

Questionaire Results

We handed our questionaire out to everyone in our class, as well as inviting a couple of teachers to view our video and complete our questionaire. We felt that by inviting teachers from another class, we would perhaps get different results as they had notbeen around whilst the video was being made.
Over all we received 15 completed questionaires and the results are as follows:

1. How do you feel the imagery linked with the music?

For this first question we recieved 5 (1's), 6 (2's) and 4 (3's)

2. Does the mise-en-scene engage and fit with the intended audience? (teens +)

For this question we recieved 4 (1's), 8 (2's) and 3 (3's)

3. How well do you feel our video went overall?

We received 7 (1's), 7 (2's) and 1 (3)

4. Do you think we created a narrative that ties in with our title (MiddleClass) ?

Here the results weren't so high as we recieved 1 (1), 12 (2's) and 2 (3's)

The next three questions are not answered with a number scale. This is because we felt we would like some actualk information from the viewers.

Questionaire

Questionnaire – 1 being best

1. How do you feel the imagery linked with the soundtrack?

1 2 3 4 5

2. Does the mise-en-scene engage and fit the intended audience? (teens+)

1 2 3 4 5

3.How well do you feel our video went overall?

1 2 3 4 5

4. Do you feel we created a narrative that fits with our title (Middleclass)?

1 2 3 4 5

5. What special effects/transitions did you notice and how well did they work?

6. What did you feel was the best shot, and why?

7.Do you feel we created a fitting atmosphere for youth culture?

Yes / No

Music Video Analysis

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GF6kBNLTvaU&ob=av2n

Rabbit Heart is the fourth single from Florence’s debut album, Lungs and reached 12th in the UK singles chart after being released on 22nd June 2009. The genre of the song is classified as indie pop on the music site last.fm and alternative in the iTunes music store.

The video is largely narrative based with Florence singing in a field accompanied by a number of actors. A spiritual ritual appears to take place in the video, where Florence and the actors dance, food is thrown from a table to the floor and finally Florence is pushed out into a river in a floating coffin-like box in a way similar to a Biblical story. These spiritual themes relate directly back to the lyrics for instance the line ‘we raise it up, this offering, we raise it up’ as well as the song’s chorus.
The video starts off with an extreme close up of Florence’s mouth with the rest of her face covered by a piece of cloth. The camera then pans outwards as the cloth is lifted into a medium close up. This draws the audience’s attention to the opening lyrics of the song.
Tracking close ups and medium close up’s are regularly used throughout the music video of Florence making her constantly the centre of the audience’s attention.
Only one musical instrument from the song appears in the video. A man in a suit playing a harp appears intermittently creating a fairy-tale like scene fitting in with the lyrics and meaning of the song. One or two other instruments are used simply as props in the video to help the video relate to the meaning of the song.
The cutting rhythm of the song is slower than most music videos, but still relatively fast. This combined with the filter used on the camera and the occasional use of the fade transition gives the music video a dated appearance, as if to suggest that the ritual happening on screen used to happen, but no longer takes place.
Florence & The Machine
    A number of extras appeared in the video, most notably at the end where Welch is carried towards the riverbank and pushed out onto the water. The extras make the ‘ceremony’ look like a joyous occasion as singing and dancing takes place in the background. In an interview for BBC Radio Florence confessed that her record label had asked for something more upbeat, and the use of these actors in the background help achieve this.
While Rabbit Heart (Raise it up) wasn’t Florence’s first single, it was an important song as relatively new artist for the creation of her public image. The video helps to show Florence not as the typical female vocalist sex symbol, but as an artist passionate about writing interesting with peculiar videos to accompany them.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-QKj62RKBrM&feature=related
   The video is simple but effective. It is made to look like a cheap production, however the genre of music that it is classed as, indie, makes the video hold a strong relationship to the song. The song is by ‘Bombay Bicycle Club’ and is called ‘Always like this’. The relationship between the video and the song is strong due to the role that the director has played. The song entitles why is it always like this and by making the video look cheap it ties together. The narrative is about things being bad and getting better. The technical operations play the role of helping to make the video what the director wanted it to be. The use of a usual video camera and only a couple of different shots used creates the outcome the director wanted for the narrative.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3r26y--evIw
   I think that the music video is made effective due to the use of Mise-en-scene and lighting. The music has an upbeat pace right from the start, and the video although it is someone waking up in the morning, they are out of bed and out straight away. The song is called ‘Feel Good’ by ‘Modestep’. When the lyrics read “when I see that look on your face” the main focus of the imagery if focused on the face of the characters within. The happenings inside the video are based to keep the the pace of the music, the use of Mise-en-scene is present in two completely opposite locations, one being in an office work place and the other set in a live night club. The video swaps between both locations throughout the song to create a stronger relationship. The technical operations play the role of constructing the video, the use of different camera angles that are present and the zooms, help you to focus on one point of the image and by doing this it creates the relationship between the consumer and directors thoughts. The director is present in the video as the angles you see used and the shots that are used are basically his/her eyes. It is what they want it to be. Other texts are used such as the briefcase which is used throughout the video to create connotations for the consumer, the immediate thought when you first see the briefcase and a parcel exchanged you think of drugs being bought. It is only later on in the video that you are allowed to see the contents and it is a old record player, this is used in several other videos from this artist. The themes used within the video are the stereotypes of the younger generation, the use of drugs and partying, office work and what it could be like. I think the representation that it creates is of the younger generation not to be taken as all the same, it shows that stereotypes aren’t always true.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bnVUHWCynig&ob=av2e
    In this video the people who are being represented is both Beyonce and the other male in the video.
   The way in which Beyonce is being represented is the ways in which females are usually represented. Beyonce is being represented as a female which is sort of paranoid about finding the right person to be with. Also, in the video Beyonce seems to be with the male who is shown and it is shown that she is able to trust this male and is removing the wall that is stopping her from trusting him. This representation of Beyonce is sort of reinforcing stereotypes of females as females are seen as paranoid and worried about meeting some one and being able to trust them.
   However, the way in which the male is being represented is challenging the stereotypes of males. This is done as males are usually stereotyped as not staying with one girl whereas in this video he is seen as the perfect one as he is being represented as an angel. This shows that the stereotypes are being challenged.
   The representations in this music video is fair as the way in which Beyonce is represented, that is the way in which most females feel and go through so its allowing females to open up more rather than hold back and not trust any males. Also, the way in which that the male is being represented is different than what males are usually represented as in music videos which allows females to see that there are some different people. This why I believe that the representations is fair.

Wednesday, 14 December 2011

Video Link - Youtube

We have now uploaded our video to youtube, and have advertised it on 'Twitter' and 'Facebook'

Here is the link, hope you enjoy the video!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rH_q50y1N04

Wednesday, 7 December 2011

Advertisement Digipak

Advert: Cypress Hill – ‘Temples of Boom’

Link to enlarged advertisement image:

http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5243/5333239162_8dfd0c5c57.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.flickr.com/photos/septicbreath/5333239162/&usg=__6BCrWvhucbDX5YkA2iU3anlCxoY=&h=500&w=329&sz=141&hl=en&start=2&zoom=1&tbnid=8zAVfUmSvZATTM:&tbnh=130&tbnw=86&ei=YErfTtW2DdLn8QPZ4um6CQ&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dcypress%2Bhill,%2Badvertisement%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26safe%3Dvss%26sa%3DN%26sout%3D1%26biw%3D1893%26bih%3D788%26tbm%3Disch&um=1&itbs=1

This product has been constructed to address the audience of the genre ‘Hip-hop’/’Rap’. This advert has been laid out much like an advertisement for a movie. There is not much colour used within the advertisement; this effect has most probably been used to create a contrast between the ‘light white text’ and the ‘dark graphology’. The graphology of the text at the top of the advertisement has been un-neatly placed. Some of the text has been underlined, some of the text has been struck through and some of the text has a larger font. The font used, has been used as it sort of resembles the text you would find in a temple. The entire font has been placed in CAPITALS; this has been used to capture the consumer’s eye. The text reads “once again the powers of herb open up the mind”. This text illustrates that this genre of music is associated with Cannabis smokers; it holds a subliminal message of ‘smoking marijuana is good for the mind’. The album is called ‘Temples of Doom’, this is shown to the bottom of the advertisement; there is a small illustration above the album name which represents either roman numerals or a historic drawing of a temple. Small illustrations such as these are used to tie in the album name to their advertisement. Below the Artist name on the advert, this has been placed in a larger font to stand out from the small bunch of text so that it stands out. The text reads ‘Prepare to enter the temple’; it is here that we are shown the link between the text and the picture used. The background picture is of a figure in a full length black robe walking up a stairway, which we are led to believe, is a temple. This advertisement is very effective as the connotations of the graphology draw in the consumer and cause them to read into the advert.