EVALUATION Alexander Derry

Group 3 TWGSB

Advanced Portfolio

QUESTION 1: THE MUSIC VIDEO

In what ways does your media product use, develop or

challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

CONVENTIONS – MUSIC VIDEO THEORIES

Following Goodwin’s theories on conventions of the music video, our music video includes a mostly disjunctive narrative:

• The narrative itself has very little to do with ruling the physical world, as the song originally suggests, and instead focuses on the inner control of the mind’s world: the boy rules his world.

This latter point suggests that he video contains an amplified narrative, as it focuses on ruling one’s internal, psychological world instead of the physical one.

CONVENTIONS – MUSIC VIDEO THEORIES

The music video does not feature Lorde herself, and as such does not lend itself to the demands of the record label. By this logic, the music video becomes more of a piece of art than advertisement for Lorde. Similarly, there is no artist specific element of voyeurism or fetishism present due to this.

Nevertheless, the music video is in itself follows Lorde’s abstract-styled music videos, similar to that of Team (2013) and thus adds to her meta-narrative.

Lorde – Team (2013)

CONVENTIONS – MUSIC VIDEO THEORIES

• In relation to the alternative pop scene, our video is mostly unconventional, with elements that are otherwise not present in pop music videos. Nonetheless, the music video does contain some cinematically conventional elements:• The use of a narrative structure

challenges the conventions of music videos of the genre, as they are predominantly conceptual with elements of performance, making our video post-modern.

• The use of a young male actor instead of featuring the singer is not as unconventional as has been. Similar to that of Woodkid’s music video for Run Boy Run (2013), our music video follows a narrative wherein the main artist herself is completely absent, save for their grain of voice.

• This expands upon Lorde’s meta-narrative. It raises awareness for domestic abuse, and as such suggests Lorde’s positioning of the audience in relation to realistic topics.

Woodkid – Run boy Run (2013)

AUDIENCE READINGS

• Audience readings – The preferred reading of the music video is that a young boy is neglected by his violent family, and he hides away from the hurt this causes in an imaginary world.

• However a negotiated reading might arise from someone who is not of the target audience, and who would be more inclined to view the protagonist as a troublesome boy who hides from his responsibilities by hiding in his bedroom, asocial and irresponsible.

• However, it could also be possible that the elder audience would see how arguments held in the home impact the younger members of their own family, and thus would accept a negotiated reading of the music video.

SEMATIC CODES

• The sematic codes present in the music video feature concepts that are mostly a part of a more western cultural code. This is perhaps mostly evident in the locations and props present in the music video, in which a western-cultured audience would relate.

• Another aspect of these sematic codes is the proairectic code; this subtle feature is found in the link between the realism sequence and the dream sequence in the shape of props:• The LEGO Figure held in the hands of the protagonist, which links to the costume worn

further on in the video.

• The use of the colouring pencils and LEGO bricks act as a way of connoting imagination and creation. As such, they become part of the semic code, giving an insight into the protagonist’s character.

SEMATIC CODES

The sword fighting sequence holds some element of symbolism, alluding to the symbolic code. The brothers fighting represent the conflict between the two, but put into a less serious scenario.

SEMIOTICSThe tunic worn by the protagonist resembles that worn by knights of the middle ages. Knights, in a European context, usually connote acts of bravery, loyalty, honour and adventure – essentially becoming an indexical sign. In this respect, the tunic worn by the protagonist signifies the latter element, which is further enhanced by the use of the sword-prop.

REPRESENTATIONSThe representation of the child protagonist presents a somewhat stereotypical view of children as innocent and victims of their surroundings – in this case, an alcoholic family (as shown through the props in the first scene). His non-verbal language further connotes his position as a “victim”, in that fear and frustration are shown in his reaction to the different members of the family.

REPRESENTATIONSBy contrast, the older brother a more regressive representation of teenagers, as shown through the non-verbal language and character blocking. The fact that he steals money from the purse acts as a connotation of this regressive representation. Additionally, his position from across the room in relation to the protagonist highlights his dissimilarity to his younger brother.

REPRESENTATION

• In essence, the two brothers act as binary oppositions within the narrative, emphasised through use of props and non-verbal language: • The older brother uses technology, distancing himself from the

wider issues. In some respects, this establishes the brother as a form of negative pastiche of the protagonist.

• the more creative and guiltless protagonist uses pencils and toys for imaginary characters and world, connoting his innocence.

REPRESENTATION

Most importantly, however, is the representation of families and domestic issues. In the case of the music video, the music video challenges the stereotypical representation of middle-class families as being more ideal than lower- or upper-class. In essence, middle-class families suffer from domestic disputes as any other family, and are no exception to the rule. The music video attempts to show this through location, non-verbal language of the parents and the use of middle-class-associated props

CONVENTIONS – CAMERA • The majority of the

screen time in the music video feature the protagonist. This is seen in the constant use of close ups, tracking and shot-reaction-shots. This creates a stronger link between the audience and the protagonist, and thus helps promote a preferred reading of the music video, as we are positioned with the protagonist.

QUESTION 2: THE PRINT PRODUCTS

How effective is the combination of your main product and

ancillary texts?

DIGIPAK

We set out to create a cohesive band image to promote the album through the use of a consistent style across a range of promotional material, such as the constant relation back to the subject of the music video, the young boy. The boy himself carries connotations of innocence and bravery in the face of adversity.

We support this through our promotional material to affect how the customer interprets the product, and to show Lorde as being a supporter of the younger generations, but in a constructive

DIGIPAK

• The digipak itself was largely inspired by the Japanese cover of Lorde’s Pure Heroine album, conforming to the conventional representation of the female artist. However, this is diminished by the use of the protagonist of the music video instead of Lorde herself, thus becoming unconventional.

The crossed keys from the artist Woodkid served as another source of inspiration for the medieval themes and inner pane.

The artist Woodkid was one of our main sources of inspiration when it came to the actual production itself.

DIGIPAK

The digipak adds points to the star image of Lorde:• Lorde herself does not feature on the front cover of the digipak,

while her iconic typography and her grain of voice in the song itself do feature. As a result, she is both present and absent from the digipak, conforming to the theories presented by Richard Dyer.

• In addition, the intensity of the front cover image (left) resembles that of the Japanese cover (right), and as such the lack of negative space gives the image an emotional intensity.

DIGIPAK AND PRINT PRODUCT

We decided to turn the crest from the boy’s costume into a visual motif which would be seen throughout the promotional material and the back pane of the digipak. As said under semiotics, the concept of a crest – and thus the tunic – is something which has connotations which would provide some intertextual reference and semiotic meaning. For example, a crest signifies family or unity, but the boy’s family is present as being broken. Furthermore, as mentioned under semiotics, the crest connotes the imagination of a young mind, which we thought was an interesting signifier to add to Lorde’s otherwise mostly teenage-oriented meta-narrative.In addition, the golden colour of the crest adds to the Royals (2013) meta-narrative.

THE PRINT PRODUCTSWe agreed early on in production that we wanted to be able to appeal to multiple audiences, and as such decided to create two print products: one for a mainstream audience, and one for the alternative audiences. However, given that we had no access to Lorde herself, we decided to link the print products to elements of the music video and digipak instead.

MAGAZINE ADS• The alternative cover was designed to be

less detailed and appeal to a more “knowing” audience. Its minimalistic design reflects that as seen on the western album cover of Pure Heroine (2013), with the use of the iconic typography featured on the same album and on other pieces of promotional content.

• Composition-wise, the crest acts as a leading line towards the artist name. Combined with the typography, the white space is minimised and thus the same intensity featured on the front cover of the digipak is achieved.

MAGAZINE ADSThe mainstream was smaller, designed to be a half page spread, rather than full as the alternative.

The mainstream ad was designed with a less knowledgeable audience in mind, with the text displaying obvious pieces of information such as “out now”, Lorde’s websites and Twitter tags. As such, we cover the paradoxes established by Dyer:

• Lorde’s name is present, alongside her website’s address, hashtag, the large font and iconic typography, yet is absent from the advert itself.

Lorde featured on Billboard magazine, a more mainstream magazine

QUESTION 4: DEVELOPING ICT SKILLS

How did you use media

technologies in the

construction and research?

BLOGGER

• The element of research was crucial to understanding the concepts of Dyer’s star theory, Goodwin’s music video conventions and Barnes’ semiotics, and applying them to the pre-production phase, as well as in the latter stages of production. Blogger allowed us to accumulate our findings onto one continuous blog, providing us with content to discuss the different aspects of the road towards the final piece.

BLOGGER• The use of the blogger

website became far more prominent this year, as we collectively had to consider any and all opportunities and issues together. The increased size of the group meant that we had to gather our findings together and promote a stronger use of the blog.

• As such, our A2 production was more concise and organised, and has played a vital part of the planning, construction and evaluation of the production. The commenting ability was specifically used to communicate these ideas and concepts

BLOGGER

While most of the planning took place on Facebook’s messenger, the blog created the opportunity to have a webpage ready for easy reference for the risk assessments that were then discussed or considered on social media.

BLOGGER

We collectively kept updates as to the progress of the music video on the blog, which meant that we always could keep track of what had been going on in the post-production phase and refer back to our own contributions in these steps towards the final piece.

SURVEY MONKEY

Survey Monkey provided us with feedback for our concept, which we promoted through Facebook. This allowed us to test our concept to a wider, more trustworthy target audience, which produced positive results for us to consider during production.

PHOTOSHOP

Photoshop CS3 was extensively used in the creation of the digipak and print products. It allowed us to create and produce effective pieces of work, though not without some level of practice and prior knowledge to how each of the individual tools functioned, as well as understanding the process of image size and resolution.

PHOTOSHOP• Most importantly, however, was the

selection tool, which enabled me to take specific sections of an image and change it without altering anything else on the canvas.

• In order to finalise the image layer, I also adjusted the image through the curves tool, which allowed me to change the shadows, midtones and highlights.

• If I needed an additional shadow, midtone or highlight somewhere on the image, I could use the burn or dodge tool to take smaller sections and change them there.

• In the case of the full page spread, I made use of the clone stamp tool to make the image I had used slightly larger, tricking the viewers’ eyes into thinking that it was a larger piece of cloth.

SOCIAL MEDIA• Social media was used

primarily to check up on any missed work, but also for checking possible location recce dates and filming dates.

• In addition, we used the files-sharing tool to pass PowerPoint presentations between us, as well as adding in http websites to share information or videos with one another.

• Furthermore, we shared ideas of how the print work could look, whilst referencing any artists that we had researched that could influence our finalised print work.

CHALLENGES

• The largest challenge of the use of ICT was the speed of the editing software. This was mostly due to the processing speed of the computer we were working on, which was becoming slower by the edit. Nevertheless, we managed to finish the final edit in time for the colour grading. The only setback of the colour grading software was the lack of experience with it on our behalf, but we finalised the music video in time for the deadline.

CHALLENGES• Another, small

technical issue that we encountered was the ISO speed on the camera during the night-time shots. This was tackled by the use of Isaac’s LED lamp, which proved useful for when the torch that Tristan was carrying was running dry.