The Crew

Shuja Pasha- Product Design

Robert McCarthy- Team Leader/ Director Joe Stark-

Producer/ Editing Manager

In what ways does your media product, use develop or

challenge forms, and conventions of real media products

Abstract Music Video

• We defined an abstract music video as a video that uses metaphor and complex imagery to create meaning.

• We used this by running with lyrics. For example we used chefs at work at the German market “burn away”, and when running away “fall away”.

• We also used kaleidoscopes to suggest a sense of disarray when the song becomes more erratic, as at the end of the song the lyrics don’t reach no clear conclusion (an on going image).

Music Video (Codes and conventions)

• We took the idea of using multiple screens to present our video from “Kid Cudi – Make Her Say”. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xt22KvnRSL4

• We also took the idea for mixing performance and abstract videos from “Maximo Park’s Questing Not Coasting”. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nqYkiZ4a1oQ

Music Video (Codes and Conventions)

• As Sculptors are a Birmingham band, we wanted our abstract images to either have strong connotations to Birmingham or Britain in general.

CD Cover

• We were influenced by many of the Johnny Cash album covers (especially the live prison sets). We liked the idea of popularising the front man. As well as this we create a retro almost nostalgic feel.

• We used dark colour schemes to create a dark atmospheric tone that is mirrored within the bands music just like Muses album Showbiz.

• We chose small writing for the album as we wanted the band and the mask imagery to be the vocal points of our project. We would hope for audience recognition.

Tour Poster

• We wanted our tour poster to sell a product. As a Kasabian tour poster did by showing a live performance So we decided to show multiple pictures using scattered Polaroid pictures. Then we used an imaged of the bridge of the guitar purely because Sculptors are in fact a primarily guitar based band.

How effective is the combination of your main product and

ancillary texts?

Combination of Product

• The link between the Music Video, CD and Tour Poster is the use of the live performance imagery. Within the abstract part of the music video there are shots of the ‘Sculptors’ performing at the 02 in Birmingham this links with the pictures of the Sculptors performing on the CD and Tour Poster.

• In addition this we also used the same pictures on the CD and Tour Poster to show a link between the two.

• Along with the use of the same pictures on both the CD and Tour Poster, we also used the image of the mask.

Masks

• The theme of the masks is used throughout the music video and also on the Tour Poster and CD cover. The mask was initial used as it represent the band being hidden and running away, which the lyrics of the song ‘Fall’ is all about.

• The mask was also created as an icon for the band so they could be recognised without the name of the band ‘Sculptors’ being visual. Much like how the ‘M’ is an icon for McDonalds, the ‘Tick’ represents the brand Nike, and black and white for Guiness.

Live Performance

• The photos used on the Tour Poster and CD Cover are of the band Live Performance. We have done this because we wanted to put across that ‘Sculptors’ are live performers, which is why within the music video the main shots consist of them performing, in addition to this within the abstract of the video there are shot of the band playing a gig at the 02. This is because in today’s music industry illegal downloaded of albums and single has risen, therefore for bands and artist have to make more money from the Live Performance of ticket sales.

How did you use media technologies in the construction

and research, planning and evaluation stages?

Blogger

• Blogger has been used to display to the world our:

• Planning.

• Research.

• Assessment of other products.

• Distribution of our product.

• A place to collectively display all our work in a digital media.

Video Camera

• To film our video we used a Sanyo Xacti VPC-TH1; it is a handheld high definition camera.

• The only issue was that we were not able to film in wide screen on this camera. Because of this we had to have a 4 way split screen instead of two.

Adobe Photoshop CS4

• We used photoshop to create our tour poster and our album covers and artwork.

• We used features such as the magic wand and cropping to create authentic media product.

Apple

• To create our music video we used a macbook loaded with Final cut Express.

• This technology is available to us at home, as the schools equipment is a bit dated for the quality of product we wanted to achieve.

• We also used an external hard drive to store all our footage on.

Final Cut Express

• Final cut express is the upgraded version to the iMovie software supplied on all new Apple Computers.

• The school runs iMovie and we wanted to have more creative freedom so we choose to use Final Cut instead.

• This allowed us to use more complicated techniques such as multiple screens and more complex effects.

Audience Feedback

• www.youtube.com/watch?v=phFfV-tW4Ys

Audience Feedback – what we thought?

• We were worried that people wouldn’t understand the collidascope, or the images given. We saw in the feedback that people did generally understand this image though.

• Also we did get someone saying there should be a story. We did not want a story, as we wanted to represent Birmingham in our images. We felt a narrative would weaken this point.

• Next time I would probably do a narrative music video for simplicities sake rather than putting loads of images together across 4 screens.