Tuesday, 17 May 2011
Evaluative Response
I also went back to Chizom, who was the boy i interviewed on video to see what his thoughts on our finish product was.
Here is a script of the conversation:
Me: So what was your overall opinion on the music video?
Chizom: I personally don’t like that type of music, but I think the music video was really good. The way the images cut to the beat looked slick and professional and I liked the idea of a manly role being played by girls, in order to get your initial point across.
Me: Oh so you noticed what we tried to do? Did you think it is effective?
Chizom: Yeah, it was because you didn’t like the way girls are usually being portrayed in music videos so you made them behave in the total opposite way for a shock factor. And yes it was quite shocking and unexpected.
Me: So what do you think we could have improved?
Chizom: I think the storyline could have been improved, because it wasn’t very clear what was going on or what the actual point was
Me: Oh okay, and what was your favourite aspect of the video?
Chizom: The fact that the whole music was in black and white was my favourite aspect because it gave the whole video an edgy, cool feel to it
Me: What did you think about the poster and digipak?
Chizom: I thought they were really good. I liked the fact that the message conveyed was also put into the advertising. From the image on the digipak, you wouldn't expect the video the girls to be acting as males, so it increases the shock factor, emphasising your point.
Me: Okay Thank you very much for your time :)
Here is a script of the conversation:
Me: So what was your overall opinion on the music video?
Chizom: I personally don’t like that type of music, but I think the music video was really good. The way the images cut to the beat looked slick and professional and I liked the idea of a manly role being played by girls, in order to get your initial point across.
Me: Oh so you noticed what we tried to do? Did you think it is effective?
Chizom: Yeah, it was because you didn’t like the way girls are usually being portrayed in music videos so you made them behave in the total opposite way for a shock factor. And yes it was quite shocking and unexpected.
Me: So what do you think we could have improved?
Chizom: I think the storyline could have been improved, because it wasn’t very clear what was going on or what the actual point was
Me: Oh okay, and what was your favourite aspect of the video?
Chizom: The fact that the whole music was in black and white was my favourite aspect because it gave the whole video an edgy, cool feel to it
Me: What did you think about the poster and digipak?
Chizom: I thought they were really good. I liked the fact that the message conveyed was also put into the advertising. From the image on the digipak, you wouldn't expect the video the girls to be acting as males, so it increases the shock factor, emphasising your point.
Me: Okay Thank you very much for your time :)
Monday, 9 May 2011
Audience feedback
With the increased Blackberry Messenger users and hype around this new instant messenging software for phones, I decided to use it to collect audience feedback. I broadcasted a link to our video on youtube to selected people from our target group and then asked them a series of questions. I selected one question and answer from each person. Here is what they had to say:
How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
As seen before, this is our digipak:
And this is our poster:
I think our digipak and poster image is effective because it is striking and eye-catching. The pose looks quite seductive as only the lead singers lips are showing, which lures people in as ‘sex sells’. But when they watch the video they receive a shock as the girls in the video are in no way portrayed as sexual objects like they were expecting. This sends out our message that we don’t agree with the way women are treated in music videos and how we would like this to stop.
The fact it is in black and white is effective because darkness gives a sense of mystery and the audience are more wanting to find out more about it. Also because the majority of the lead singer’s face is covered, more mystery is caused and the audience are going to want to find out who the girl is. This would involve coming closer to read more about the poster or picking up the digipak case and browsing which is one step closer to actually buying or watching our video.
We decided to use the same image for the poster and digipak because we felt it would definitely be more effective. This is because the image would become iconic and so when the image is seen anywhere people can readily associate it back to who we are causing a greater awareness of our band and hopefully engaging more people to buy our media product.
This is similar to Joy Division’s album cover for ‘Unknown Pleasures’
It became so iconic that the image was used on other products other than the album cover and poster.
And finally, our digipak and poster our effective in the fact that the audience can grasp just from looking at it, that the music is of a punk-rock or similar genre. This is because we followed many of the conventions, such as not making so much emphasis on materialistic things or the band name and song. We did this by writing these details in small by the corner. We also had an image with a deeper meaning than just to show the artists face, which is typical of this genre. Even the title of the band ‘Genocide’ is obviously meant to have a deeper meaning, and so audiences will start thinking more and wondering what this is meant to represent. The mysterious, dark, black and white theme we chose also fits in with the punk rock genre, unlike genres like pop that have bright and colourful digipaks and posters.
And this is our poster:
I think our digipak and poster image is effective because it is striking and eye-catching. The pose looks quite seductive as only the lead singers lips are showing, which lures people in as ‘sex sells’. But when they watch the video they receive a shock as the girls in the video are in no way portrayed as sexual objects like they were expecting. This sends out our message that we don’t agree with the way women are treated in music videos and how we would like this to stop.
The fact it is in black and white is effective because darkness gives a sense of mystery and the audience are more wanting to find out more about it. Also because the majority of the lead singer’s face is covered, more mystery is caused and the audience are going to want to find out who the girl is. This would involve coming closer to read more about the poster or picking up the digipak case and browsing which is one step closer to actually buying or watching our video.
We decided to use the same image for the poster and digipak because we felt it would definitely be more effective. This is because the image would become iconic and so when the image is seen anywhere people can readily associate it back to who we are causing a greater awareness of our band and hopefully engaging more people to buy our media product.
This is similar to Joy Division’s album cover for ‘Unknown Pleasures’
It became so iconic that the image was used on other products other than the album cover and poster.
And finally, our digipak and poster our effective in the fact that the audience can grasp just from looking at it, that the music is of a punk-rock or similar genre. This is because we followed many of the conventions, such as not making so much emphasis on materialistic things or the band name and song. We did this by writing these details in small by the corner. We also had an image with a deeper meaning than just to show the artists face, which is typical of this genre. Even the title of the band ‘Genocide’ is obviously meant to have a deeper meaning, and so audiences will start thinking more and wondering what this is meant to represent. The mysterious, dark, black and white theme we chose also fits in with the punk rock genre, unlike genres like pop that have bright and colourful digipaks and posters.
Why did we choose to write the song words on our backs as a form of intertexuality?
Also in the film ‘Control’, it begins with the lead singer of the band walking down the street and we then see the word ‘hate’ written on his jacket. This represents the feelings that the singer had. In our video we decided to incorporate this but instead wrote the words of the song on our backs. This was in order to remind the audience of the song title and to get them thinking more, keeping their attention.
Why did we choose to have the whole video in black and white?
The most famous images of Joy Division were photographed by Anton Corbijn and are in black and white. This lead to the 2007 movie ‘Control’ (a film about the life of Ian Curtis- lead singer of Joy Division) to be shot all in black and white as this is the look they were well-known for.
Therefore we decided to also shoot our whole film in black and white as Joy Division fans or those who know about them will be able to relate our music video to Joy Division, which is what we wanted to do as we still wanted to represent the Joy Division band.
Therefore we decided to also shoot our whole film in black and white as Joy Division fans or those who know about them will be able to relate our music video to Joy Division, which is what we wanted to do as we still wanted to represent the Joy Division band.
Why did we choose to have a gang made of females?
We researched into other music videos and a lot of music videos that only contained males usually had a sense of violence or was gang related. Our favourite video was ‘Justice- Stress’.
This video contained a gang of boys who were quite antisocial. They all had the same clothes on which represented that they were in the same gang. And handheld, interesting shots were used a lot. We loved this idea and incorporated in our music video, using girls instead of boys which is shocking to the audience as girls are usually shown as sexual props and so hopefully let the audience understand that we disapprove of that and our video was a form of mockery in order to rebel against the way women are treated. We also used handheld, interesting shots to give the video and edgy feel similar to the ‘Stress’ video and we all wore the same clothes to represent members of the same “gang”.
This video contained a gang of boys who were quite antisocial. They all had the same clothes on which represented that they were in the same gang. And handheld, interesting shots were used a lot. We loved this idea and incorporated in our music video, using girls instead of boys which is shocking to the audience as girls are usually shown as sexual props and so hopefully let the audience understand that we disapprove of that and our video was a form of mockery in order to rebel against the way women are treated. We also used handheld, interesting shots to give the video and edgy feel similar to the ‘Stress’ video and we all wore the same clothes to represent members of the same “gang”.
Sunday, 8 May 2011
Target Audience in depth interview
In order to find out more information of what our target audience thought about music video's in general and their specific ideas on the way women are represented, I interviewed a member of this target group.
To conclude, I feel like this age group and gender don't really feel like it bothers them much the way women are represented. As a male himself, he enjoys women to be in music videos and doesn't think deeper into what the females think about this topic. He knows it isn't fair but didn't necessarily think about that before the interview. So hopefully, once our music video is showed to him, he will have a changed opinion and understand what we are trying to say.
To conclude, I feel like this age group and gender don't really feel like it bothers them much the way women are represented. As a male himself, he enjoys women to be in music videos and doesn't think deeper into what the females think about this topic. He knows it isn't fair but didn't necessarily think about that before the interview. So hopefully, once our music video is showed to him, he will have a changed opinion and understand what we are trying to say.
Finished Digipak
Due to the research I undertook, I came to the conclusion that artists of the ‘rock’ and sub rock genres (punk rock artists) usually have a deeper meaning to their posters and adverts whereas genres such as r’n’b and pop usually make the purpose of their adverts to glamorise themselves and other materialistic objects. For this reason we made our finished digipak like this:
We have put the lead singer’s face in big on the cover. This is because we wanted to emphasise the fact that it is a female which is contradictory because she is lip syncing a man’s voice, in an attempt to portray herself as a male. We kept it in black and white in order to fit in with Joy Divisions classic look and also to represent a hidden message, as dark colours are seen as mysterious. Normally when a female is showing nothing but her lips, it is meant to represent seduction as the lips are famous for being sensuous. However, when the audience actually buy or watch the final product, they will pleasantly be surprised to find that this isn’t the case and for once females are not actually being portrayed as sexual objects so the shock will be greater. We used the font ‘Courier new’ and used capital letters. This is because ‘courier new’ looks like a formal font to let the audience know that there is a sense of seriousness with our song, and not just made for fun, which is emphasised with the capital letters.
The inside of the digipak has got a crumpled up school tie and shirt. This is because we also wanted to represent the loss of innocence, and how troublesome teenagers are at this day and age. Uniform usually represents rules and because everyone looks the same when wearing it unison is also represented. Therefore crumpling up the uniform and leaving it on a brick wall symbolises how teenagers don’t care about rules and regulation and just simply don’t follow them. Also it shows that they all want to be different.
This the back cover. The empty swing compliments the message that the inside is trying to state about the loss of innocence. Younger people are seemed to enjoy playgrounds. However since the swing is empty can symbolise that they don’t do these things anymore. Empty swings can also represent desertedness, which is linked to the front cover’s message as we want the gender stereotypes to be wiped out as in a genocide leaving that area of music videos deserted.
We have put the lead singer’s face in big on the cover. This is because we wanted to emphasise the fact that it is a female which is contradictory because she is lip syncing a man’s voice, in an attempt to portray herself as a male. We kept it in black and white in order to fit in with Joy Divisions classic look and also to represent a hidden message, as dark colours are seen as mysterious. Normally when a female is showing nothing but her lips, it is meant to represent seduction as the lips are famous for being sensuous. However, when the audience actually buy or watch the final product, they will pleasantly be surprised to find that this isn’t the case and for once females are not actually being portrayed as sexual objects so the shock will be greater. We used the font ‘Courier new’ and used capital letters. This is because ‘courier new’ looks like a formal font to let the audience know that there is a sense of seriousness with our song, and not just made for fun, which is emphasised with the capital letters.
The inside of the digipak has got a crumpled up school tie and shirt. This is because we also wanted to represent the loss of innocence, and how troublesome teenagers are at this day and age. Uniform usually represents rules and because everyone looks the same when wearing it unison is also represented. Therefore crumpling up the uniform and leaving it on a brick wall symbolises how teenagers don’t care about rules and regulation and just simply don’t follow them. Also it shows that they all want to be different.
This the back cover. The empty swing compliments the message that the inside is trying to state about the loss of innocence. Younger people are seemed to enjoy playgrounds. However since the swing is empty can symbolise that they don’t do these things anymore. Empty swings can also represent desertedness, which is linked to the front cover’s message as we want the gender stereotypes to be wiped out as in a genocide leaving that area of music videos deserted.
Digipak 3: Nirvana- Never Mind
Nirvana is an American rock band that was most popular in the late 90’s. This album cover is following the stereotypical ‘rock’ genre as one of the conventions are that the faces of the members of a rock band are not usually shown on their album covers. They are more likely to show a controversial image, or an image that represents a certain idea that they believe in.
This album cover shows a baby floating in water and trying to grab money. This is basically stating the loss of innocence. That as soon as the baby is born everything is about money. Another connotation could be that the baby represents life and seeing as he is trying to get money means that life revolves around getting money. During fishing, living things are used as bait to draw the fish in. Sometimes they are thrown back in but the majority of the time they are hurt. The money in this image is attached to the fishing line as bait, and it suggests that we as humans will be reeled in to anything to do with money as we are all money hungry, but attached to the money is usually something negative.
This album cover shows a baby floating in water and trying to grab money. This is basically stating the loss of innocence. That as soon as the baby is born everything is about money. Another connotation could be that the baby represents life and seeing as he is trying to get money means that life revolves around getting money. During fishing, living things are used as bait to draw the fish in. Sometimes they are thrown back in but the majority of the time they are hurt. The money in this image is attached to the fishing line as bait, and it suggests that we as humans will be reeled in to anything to do with money as we are all money hungry, but attached to the money is usually something negative.
Digipak 2: Curtis Mayfield- There’s no place like America today
Curtis Mayfield was an American soul/funk singer in the mid-late ‘60’s. He is well-known for his politically conscience style of music and this digipak is a prime example of this. The title of the album is called ‘There’s no place like America today’ which is slightly ironic. The digipak consists of a billboard in America stating that America was the best place anyone could live in with a land of opportunities for everyone. The billboard picture has a perfect white family with fancy clothes, a car and they are all happy. However in reality, standing right in front of this billboard, we see a queue of black people with solemn expressions, tatty clothes and holding loads of items as if they are homeless. This is basically stating that America were hypocrites, because they claimed to be this wonderful place but in actual fact the only people who were experiencing America in this light were the upper-class white people, so Mayfield was basically stating that racism still existed although it was made out like it wasn’t and there was still a hierarchy of race in society, in which white people where above black people.
The billboard is printed in a lot of colour whereas the black people queuing up in reality, also the buildings in the background are all dull looking. Colour draws attention and therefore the emphasis is put on the billboard, this highlights to the audience even more what Mayfield is trying to represent and it also connotes a clearer contrast and division between white and black people. The fact that the white people are in colour shows that white people have happier lives in America as colour usually shows joy and the fact that the black people look cramped and are dull looking represents that that is how they live, in cramped conditions due to the small houses they can afford and their dull lives as they are not happy.
Digipak research
In order to get a better perspective of digipaks so that we can understand better how to prepare our own, I have researched and analysed different existing digipaks.
Digipak 1: Katy Perry- Teenage dream
Katy Perry produces pop music, which should have the following conventions of young, fun and happy upbeat music. This Album cover in fact presents these features and is therefore representing the pop genre. This is done by her use of baby pinks and blues which are associated with youth and young children. The actual CD is actually printed in a candy red and white spiral which again represents youth as it is similar to that of sweets, as is the giant candy floss looking cloud that she is laying on. Also her name is written in a balloon like font which again is very playful and fun.
The album title is teenage dream and this has been used as the theme for the Digipak. The fact she is laying on a cloud connotes the fact she is in a dream as does the red and white spiral of the CD. As well as looking like a piece of candy, it also looks similar to that of a hypnotist’s tool for making people sleep, which again is a visual image of the album title. The images inside the Digipak are of the artist dressed up as a prom queen wearing a tiara and a prom king wearing a crown. Going to the prom is culturally one of the biggest events that happen in a typical American teenage girl’s life. The narrative of the album cover can therefore be suggesting that a teenage girl’s dream is to go to the prom and become the queen.
The fact she is naked could suggest that she is trying to compare to that of a new born baby which represents herself as young and playful, as a child is. Young age is definitely represented in this cover due to the candy like feel of the colours used, the candy floss/cloud background, the candy looking CD and the images of the prom queen and king. Young people are stereotyped to love sweets and having fun. Going to the prom is also a major stereotype of teenagers and therefore the target audience of teenagers and younger children is highly reached.
Women usually try to dress and look young and babyish in order to attract men as there instinct is to protect women and their family. This is why a lot of woman buy teddy bears and sit on men’s laps as a baby would. Katy Perry’s album could give this different meaning and target men instead of young teenagers, due to the fact the album cover is young and fresh. Also the fact she is naked could give a sexual impression and so older people, especially men would become the target audience.
Digipak 1: Katy Perry- Teenage dream
Katy Perry produces pop music, which should have the following conventions of young, fun and happy upbeat music. This Album cover in fact presents these features and is therefore representing the pop genre. This is done by her use of baby pinks and blues which are associated with youth and young children. The actual CD is actually printed in a candy red and white spiral which again represents youth as it is similar to that of sweets, as is the giant candy floss looking cloud that she is laying on. Also her name is written in a balloon like font which again is very playful and fun.
The album title is teenage dream and this has been used as the theme for the Digipak. The fact she is laying on a cloud connotes the fact she is in a dream as does the red and white spiral of the CD. As well as looking like a piece of candy, it also looks similar to that of a hypnotist’s tool for making people sleep, which again is a visual image of the album title. The images inside the Digipak are of the artist dressed up as a prom queen wearing a tiara and a prom king wearing a crown. Going to the prom is culturally one of the biggest events that happen in a typical American teenage girl’s life. The narrative of the album cover can therefore be suggesting that a teenage girl’s dream is to go to the prom and become the queen.
The fact she is naked could suggest that she is trying to compare to that of a new born baby which represents herself as young and playful, as a child is. Young age is definitely represented in this cover due to the candy like feel of the colours used, the candy floss/cloud background, the candy looking CD and the images of the prom queen and king. Young people are stereotyped to love sweets and having fun. Going to the prom is also a major stereotype of teenagers and therefore the target audience of teenagers and younger children is highly reached.
Women usually try to dress and look young and babyish in order to attract men as there instinct is to protect women and their family. This is why a lot of woman buy teddy bears and sit on men’s laps as a baby would. Katy Perry’s album could give this different meaning and target men instead of young teenagers, due to the fact the album cover is young and fresh. Also the fact she is naked could give a sexual impression and so older people, especially men would become the target audience.
Our band name
Females in music videos are usually looked at as sexual objects, in which they have no role except for to arouse males and are treated as props. On the other hand, males are portrayed as the dominant person and are referred to as trouble makers, drinkers and smokers. In a feminist way of removing the representation of women in music videos, we decided to switch roles as a form of mockery. This is how we came up with the band name ‘Gendercide’. Genocide is defined as the deliberate destruction of an ethnic, racial, religious, or national group. So our play on this word means the deliberate destruction of stereotypical gender roles.
Wednesday, 4 May 2011
Music Video Organisation
Story Outline
We have chosen to make our music video to Joy Division's song, 'No Love Lost'
Due to the research we have done, we have concluded that our music video will be about portraying the life’s of youth today in the form of 3 young girls, using the punk rock conventions and still trying to resemble Joy Divison as a band. This will involve going through the day in the life of these girls, causing havoc, drinking, smoking and enjoying themselves the way youth are stereotypically made to do.
Actors
The people that will play the 3 girls will be the following:
Amy
Me (Nuchi)
Marwo
Choosing members of the group to do the acting, instead of others, was our choice so that time management and getting hold of each other for filming would be a more manageable task.
Possible Locations
We wanted to use places that looked urban, youthful and that fitted in to the punk rock theme. Here are some of the possible locations:
Camden Town
Camden Town would be a great location because a lot of young people who are typical members of the punk sub-culture are present here. It is also well known for a place that more eccentric people like to visit and so will fit in with our video.
Alleyway
This alleyway has graffiti and wired fences which resembles something of troublesome teenagers and prison, which is typical of the punk rock genre.
Wembley Park
As we are however still trying to resemble ourselves to the sophisticated side that joy division have, we wanted to take similar poses to the Anton Corborjin photos of the band. And with the buildings and tourists attractions, Wembley is a good place for it.
Playground
Playgrounds are usually associated with young innocence that children have, therefore us shooting here will be juxtaposing this idea and connote how the innocence of childhood is lost these days.
Costumes
Joy Division wears smart/casual clothes. Therefore in order to represent this we also want to have a similar look.
We have decided on wearing Blazers, with worker boots in order to give us a more masculine look, similar to the band.
We have also decided that we are going to paint the words of the song on to our backs for intertextuality, and to remind the viewers about the song their listening to.
Props
We want to make use of props that will let viewers know they are watching a punk-rock music video.
This is going to include:
• Cigarettes
• Alcohol
• Instruments (guitar and microphone)
As these are conventional props of this genre
We have chosen to make our music video to Joy Division's song, 'No Love Lost'
Due to the research we have done, we have concluded that our music video will be about portraying the life’s of youth today in the form of 3 young girls, using the punk rock conventions and still trying to resemble Joy Divison as a band. This will involve going through the day in the life of these girls, causing havoc, drinking, smoking and enjoying themselves the way youth are stereotypically made to do.
Actors
The people that will play the 3 girls will be the following:
Amy
Me (Nuchi)
Marwo
Choosing members of the group to do the acting, instead of others, was our choice so that time management and getting hold of each other for filming would be a more manageable task.
Possible Locations
We wanted to use places that looked urban, youthful and that fitted in to the punk rock theme. Here are some of the possible locations:
Camden Town
Alleyway
This alleyway has graffiti and wired fences which resembles something of troublesome teenagers and prison, which is typical of the punk rock genre.
Wembley Park
Playground
Costumes
Joy Division wears smart/casual clothes. Therefore in order to represent this we also want to have a similar look.
We have decided on wearing Blazers, with worker boots in order to give us a more masculine look, similar to the band.
We have also decided that we are going to paint the words of the song on to our backs for intertextuality, and to remind the viewers about the song their listening to.
Props
We want to make use of props that will let viewers know they are watching a punk-rock music video.
This is going to include:
• Cigarettes
• Alcohol
• Instruments (guitar and microphone)
As these are conventional props of this genre
Tuesday, 3 May 2011
Oasis wonder wall
With us deciding my group deciding on a black and white concept for the video , found this video particularly interesting to make reference to with this video also being black and ,which the way that they were able incorporated different ideas such as making the instruments the focal point and making the instruments the only things throughout the video I thought it was interesting and though we may not particular follow this idea I thought that what we could take from this video is the fact that we need the video to b exciting to make up fore black and white concept and also with our song choice the instrumental part plays a very big part on the song so I thought it would be a great idea for us to high light that in out video
Eve - Let Me Blow Ya Mind found on R&B
Eve - let me blow ya mind
In this video with the concept and narrative basically consisting of the female artist acting rebellious and contradicting stereotypes of how a woman should actually act ,I thought this video would be good to make reference to when we are planning our ideas and filming the actual video
Oasis supersonic
For the instrumental part I thought this would be a good idea as the instruments in this video seem to be a focal point and exaggerated as such, I thought it would just help generally with different ideas and inspire different ways that the video could be made to stand out to similar videos in the genre
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
