Thursday, 26 March 2015

update

Hello, i would just like to update my devoted fans. i have not posted on this account in a while and some of you may be worrying where/how my project is getting on. id like to take this time to re ashore you that the video is currently in the process of being developed and my Digi pack is also in the process.

As you may already know i joined a new group, this group consists of Craig chamberlain & cameron Humphries. these two members have been a asset to my video and have continued to help me stride for higher goals and to push my even further than i thought possible.

rihanna-stay.jpeg

we decide to do the pop song Stay- Rihanna. this is more of a slow song and feel it doesn't conform to the norms of a pop genre but feel our adaptation will be the best it can be and give me the higher mark i've been pushing for.

we have decided to all edit the video separately, using the same shots but editing the shots ourselves so it is easier to see our skills and not needing to dissect the video to show which bit we each did. hopefully the video will be done in a matter of days with the Digi pack shortly following. i have managed to fall slightly behind but hopefully i will be back up to date soon hope to add more in the future.



-Josh Deugo

Evaluation

1)in what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge form and conventions of real media products.

Within my music video i challenges and develops the normal conventions of a pop music video. through out the video there are many examples of this. after looking at laura mulveys theory about male gaze i decided to go against the idea of having a woman sexualised within my video. this is different to most pop genre ,music especially rihanna. most rihanna songs consist of sexualisation of women. especially the song stay. the original song included rihanna being in a bath assumed to be naked. unlike my video, i decided to show the vulnerability of young women and have a relatable issue that most young women suffer from (a broken heart). to bring a cross the vulnerability of my actress a way i tried to this is by using media language this was to make sure the audience knew she was upset not only through the emotions the actress was creating but through the use a handheld camera. to give a realistic tone to the video, the shakiness of the camera was created to make the audience feel that she was unstable and didn't know what she was doing. this realistic aspect to my video was one of the main ways i wanted to challenge the conventions of the pop genre. having a relatable issue and making the viewer feel as if they were with my actress getting to see her vulnerability. using an emotional song and a emotional subject i decided against having any dancing within the video. i felt that if i was going to have a realistic video you wouldn't see someone dancing in the street and felt it was not a realistic thing someone would do. this was going against most pop music videos because they usually have people dancing and being flamboyant.  

i still used lip syncing this is one of the most common practices within pop music videos. And i used this because i felt my music video needed something to show who the song was about and using lip syncing to convey the actress intensity and emotions. i developed this by only having one actress within the whole video. the reason i did this was to make sure the audience knew her loneliness and sadness. this was one of my main creative decisions and from the feedback i feel personally it paid off.  also having no story line within my video i hoped to make the audience more interact with my video without her having her own story line the viewer could see themselves in the position because there is nothing to separate them from being in that situation it was also a way to make add a mystery to my video and to make the emotions more vibrant and focused more upon.


2)how effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts

the combination of my digi pack and poster are used to strengthen the relation to my main product and to show my audience that the music video they enjoyed is still shown through other media products like the poster and the artwork on the digi pack this is to make the audience feel a connection between the video and the digi pack because i used screenshots from the music video so anyone who watched the video is able to recognise the digi pack and know that it is my production.

i decided for the digi pack to have a simplistic tone to it meaning i used as little writing on the cd cover so it was more about the character this was also to strengthen the bond between my character and audience. the front of my cover shows the actress in a strong position looking up over the camera and acknowledge the camera improving the idea of the character being strong but still venerable. this was also conforming to the most common digi packs that artists use of their selves or an actress singing their lyrics are usually place on the front of the cover. with my digipack i creatively placed the front cover being the front of her and on the back of the cover would be her back to the camera to create a 3D feel to the digipack. within the cd i have the woods from the establishing shots of the video and used it to relate to the video.

my poster consists of the same image as my cd i did this to create synergy making a relationship between the cd and the poster. this may entice the audience to go and buy the cd because it reminds them of the poster or the opposite way round. i kept the poster plain with it mainly focusing on the photo on the back this helped to advertise the video and song. making people aware of what the song is but also giving them a glimpse of what to expect within the video because the photo portrays it.


3)what have you learned from you're audience feedback 
to receive my audience feedback i sat down a class of students and played my music video to them. i received a good response and felt they had enjoyed what i had created. i was happy to hear that the bigger ideas  i wanted to convey through the video and media language  was picked up by the class for example, the use of the shaky cam to show vulnerability was picked up and also the use of natural lighting was also picked up all things i set out to have come across while watching the video. 

I have learnt not only how to improve my poster according to my target audiences needs but I have also learnt what aspects of the poster my female and male audience actually enjoy to notice. The most common response into why my audience like my promotional poster was because of the “quality of pictures and expressions the character is giving”. 

4)how did you use media technologies in the construction and research,planning and evaluate stages
when i first began thinking and planning my music video i began in a group with Cameron Humphreys we began brainstorming ideas on how to create our music video and began messaging each other using hotmail and outlook using emailing to contact each other on ideas and songs we wanted to use to make our video.
This was also highly useful because when we began filming we could contact each other to make sure we had the right equipment and what each of us where going to bring to the shooting of the video.

using Youtube and Vevo that showed us top of the chart songs art the time, we could see what music videos where popular within our genre of pop it gave us the ability to watch and analyse different videos so we knew what was expected of us and new ideas that we could use to our advantage while making the video.

i used blogger to document and show my progression through the course updating it whenever i had added to the process of making my video. it helped massively giving me somewhere i could update whenever i thought of a new idea or if something had changed. i also downloaded the app so i could edit on the move giving me the ability to update my blog whenever i needed to or thought of something new.

photoshop helped me edit my photos for my digi pack giving me the ability to create professional looking photos without needing a high quality camera. this was buy using various tools within photoshop.

i used imovie to edit all of the shots i had taken and gave me the ability to easily place all of the video shots i took into place. especially having to sync the lip syncing and various process that i would not of been able to perform without using apples imovie. i had a choice using final cut pro but decided against it because i felt being new to making music videos i need a more simplified movie maker and imovie provided this.

Thursday, 5 February 2015

Gorillaz Demon days


The concept band Gorillaz, conceived by Blur Frontman Damon Albarn and British comic book artist Jamie Hewlett. They have become highly successful despite the fact they are all fictional characters an are only shown in cartoon form. Gorillaz have always been about visual representation and a whole concept based around the band having their own personas and own story lines. The front cover doesn't stray from the visually pleasing videos with the band members with a side shot on the front of the LP Demon Days. 
The cd itself also mirrors the image on the front cover with each member profile being silhouetted against a white background. 
Parodying The Beatles ‘Let it be’ album cover that also shows the band members being placed into four individual boxes. This is taken by the clever artwork and spin that the Gorillaz use to their advantage. Also by this they are straight away comparing their selves to The Beatles. this could be compared with their innovative art style and doing something no one has ever seen (animation).
A limited edition of the album also exists and although it contains similar artwork to the regular edition, it does boast constructional differences. The Digipack folds out into four panels in an ‘X’ shape revealing the cd in the middle of them.theres nothing different with the music its just a new artwork With the ability to put one of the main four band members and being able to individually place a certain band member as tour front cover. This engages with the audience in a huge way as it allows them to create their own unique version of the album. 
The booklet insert for the standard edition of the LP is interesting as well as instead of presenting the lyrics for each song, instead individual images that represent each are on the pages. This is due to the fact that Albarn and Hewlett wanted the theming and visual narrative to be more dominant than that of the lyrical contents relevance. Albarn has said that the album is meant to be a depiction of a journey through the night in which each track represents a confrontation with a personal ‘demon’. Therefore each song has its own visual representation of these demons that are part of the concept. 



























The back cover of the digipack is fairly tame with the track listing placement in top left hand corner in a standard black font against a pure white background. Opposite sits yet more artwork of the fictional band members. This time, Japanese guitarist Noodle Sits in the foreground holding a guitar accompanied by the reccurring character of ‘The Monkey’. The remaining members of the band are placed in the background in the shadows, this almost highlighting noodle as the creative influence for the album, that the spotlight is on her. This continual reinforcement of this characters is interesting as it forces viewers and listeners to invest into the idea that these characters are real, that they are the ones who created the album. It also helps people understand the members from the front cover image i more of a contextual situation, how they relate to each other.
Overall the Digipack for Gorillaz second album is a visual feast, one that incorporates a continuity for the characters created for their first album and gives them a coherently central placement within the record, there presence as characters and the motifs of the album are the core of the pack with every image bearing them as stimulus for the viewer.