Audience Feedback 2

After I had finished my project, I decided to conduct some audience research to gain an insight into what my target audience think of my finished video. I e-mailed 5 year 13 girls and 5 year 13 boys the link to my video. I then waited for the reply.

Two out of the five girls replied and four out of the five boys replied. These were some of the comments I received:
- Its really good, its a fun, cheesy laugh. Its really fun and definitely put a smile on my face. I don't know if you meant to, but it makes the guys look really camp
- it's very good, despite how homosexual it is, its very well edited and put together
- its very good, the video works well with the song, which is very good

Overall the response I got was mainly positive, with some comments made about the male actors and their sexuality. In a music video for this song it was always an issue as how to show the male actors as masculin. As the song and story line is very feminine.

Analysis of a Music Video: The Feeling - Join With Us

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XoBz54K4wzU)

The video is set into 5 main scenes, with multiple shots in these different scenes. The video starts of with a close up on the lead singer's face.

1 st scene... benches
- the video starts before the music starts
- dan looks asleep before music starts, music wakes him up
- close up of lead singer, Dan
- band are getting ready for something
- blue skys, but still cloudy in 1st scene
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2nd scene... bikes
- this scene is brighter than the 1st
- chorus starts - change of scene, the band are on bikes
- change of clothes
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3rd scene... band under a tree
- weather changes
- same clothes as scene 1
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4th scene... feild
- video has a grainy colour
- chorus starts - change of scene, the band are on bikes
- 'the world is in your hands' - Dan looks into his hands, like he is holding 'the world'
- see the band running through the long grass
- taking off their jackets and throwing their hats in the air
- band run from behind the camera and away from it
- this changes to a tracking shot from infront of them
- the band then run either sides of the camera, close up of lead singers face when he runs past
- shots of the band relaxing/sitting in the grass
- long shot of the band doing cart wheels in the fild


5th scene... fun fair
- the song breaks down, and scene changes
- very dark scene
- at night
- this scene has a different vibe to the rest of the video
- darker atmosphere
- lead singer standing my a headge, headge opens
- main singer invited the camera/audience into their hideaway
- lighting is fake, shadows of the band, when its darker
- the fun fair? random
- band are playing to the audience/camera
- close ups on all the band playing their instruments
- the band are then pictured of a ride, enjoying them selves, smiling laughing, waving to the camera
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- the band sing backing vocals and nothing else
- the lead singer is mainly focused on, the band take a backseat in the video and songs
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CD Cover Research

The Feeling's CD covers:

All CD's released by The Feeling all relate to the album the feature o n. For example all the singles released from the first album, 'Twelve Stops And Home', are all cartoon, and just like the album cover all feature a hands or feet. The albums are also related by the colour scheme, which throughout the seven CD's are all full of colour. This is apparent in all the singles released from this album apart from the 'Fill My Little World Bonus Edition' which is different to all other CD's released by The Feeling.

The Second album is a different story, the CD covers are totally different from the 1st album, the only similarity the share is The Fee ling logo. The 1st Album is colourful and mostly cartoon with the exception of a hand or either a foot, where as this album is all realistic with no cartoon sections at all. The covers are made up of what look like vintage nick naks, they are all placed in a way that they are almost being presented to the audience, which would be the person buying the album. And again with the 1st album, the single which was released from the album runs along the same theme, the furnishings and ornaments are being displayed to the audience.

Inspirational Covers:

In particular, the two covers released by Hard-Fi and the one cover released by System Of A Down all are very post-modern, they were the first of their kind to be released, for example when have you ever seen a cover released with no picture, just writing saying why there isn't a picture.
All the other covers that I have displayed above stand out in some way to me. In particular, The Velvet Underground's album cover, this is one of my favorites mainly because of the simple yet iconic artwork on the front.

I decided to feature the the other CD covers because they all stood out to me in one way or another. I liked the Pendulum - Hold Your Colour album cover because its so unusual, and after looking at it for 10 minutes, its still hard to tell what it actually is. The greenery with the eye makes the cover look interesting, it looks like a monster, or possible a person with roots and weeds all over their face. This cover almost looks magical with the colours and the hint of glitter on the right hand side of the cover, just by the Pendulum logo.

The next album cover I chose was Nevermind by Nivarna. This is an inspirational album cover that had never been used before, a baby swimming after a US dollar. Its possible the fact that the baby is naked, and that you can see his private parts, this album was then re-edited to hide the indecent image of the baby. This shows the rebelliousness of the band, Nivarna. Nivarna were a rock/punk band which never followed the rules, which is emphasized by the cover.

The fourth cover on the top row is the album Absolution released by the band Muse. I like this cover because it is unusual like all the other covers I have featured above. I think the way the editor/designer has incorporated the shadows of what appears to be flying people. This then contrasts with the bold writing of the album artist and album name.

The next album I am going to explain is the third album from the left on the bottom row. This album is about three years old and was released by a band called Brand New. This album stands out to me because of the colours and also because of the picture. Why is an astronaut floating above the sea? What is this supposed to mean? I like this cover so much because its interesting and I want to know why is there a floating astronaut and why is the sky orange and not blue.

Our Final Music Video

Making A Music Video

e dThe director writes the treatment for the music video, after the treatment has been written, the producer sets a budget

- Then the location, technical team, extras, actors and then are booked or chosen

- After the filming has taken place, the editing starts. The band, director and sometimes the producer will decide on certain cuts and transitions

- After the video is fully edited. The promotion starts. The band may appear on programs, radio and magazines, this is all to promote the bands new single and video.

Every one involved in making a music video (institutional roles)

-Location director

- Director

– had the overall idea

- Assistant director

– makes it all happen, has little creative control

- Various cameramen, up high, on cranes, steady cams, stationary cams.

- Sound person, boom man.

- Costume artists

- Make-up artists

- Manager of the band

- The band

- Band’s family, friends etc.

- Extra’s

- Stunt people

- Special effects advisers

- Catering- Health and safety

- House keeping > every star has a dressing room, the house keeper is in charge of this.

Narative Of A Music Video

There are different types of narratives, and some of which are placed below with a video demonstrating the narrative:

Realistic Music Video - The Script - The Man Who Can't Be Moved (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=16nOViwmSJ4)

Surreal Music Video - Gorillaz - Dirty Harry (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uubdFfLhPq8)

One Narrative - Chase & Status - End Credits (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=54MxvlKRu3g)

Multiple Narrative - Daniel Powter - Bad Day (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gH476CxJxfg)

Circular Narrative - Empire Of The Sun - We Are The People (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eR8b0NuMQKs)

CD Cover

My group came up with the idea of having a hand holding a clock in our CD cover, we decided this because after looking at The Feeling's past CD covers they all had either a hand or a foot in them with the hand pointing or holding something relevant to the song or album. On The Feeling's '12 Stops And Home' album there is a hand holding a handle like the ones hanging from the ceiling of a but or train. The album title came from the lead singer's (Dan) trip home from the recording studio, which was 12 stops on the Jubilee line.

When we found this out, we thought it would be a good idea to involve something that would be relevant to our video, we came up with the idea of having a hand holding a clock, which was a vital part of our music video, representing the change in time.

We then set about taking pictures of the hand holding the clock. We used a 12.5mp camera phone, the picture came out better than expected and we thought the quality was excellent, which was a good element to have considering we wanted to edit our picture.

- The original image of a hand holding a clock.

- We separated the background from the hand and the clock and then set about cutting the picture out. This was done using Adobe Photoshop CS4.

- When we were finalizing our filming locations I took a picture on the top of Box Hill. I did this so my group would have a record of what it looked like. When we were planning our CD cover and my group member, Adam, sugested it would be a really good idea to back the clock onto a picture of Box Hill, as this was the place we shot the majourity of our filming. We editied the picture using a dry brush effect on Photo Shop to change the image.
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- We then backed the picture against a picture we took at Box Hill, which was where we filmed the majority of our video. We edited the picture using a Dry Brush effect which was also on Adobe Photoshop CS4. Then after editing the field picture we layered the hand holding the clock onto it, this meant that only the background (field) had a cartoon look about it. Which was the look we wanted to create.

- After finishing the actual picture we decided to edit the coloures of the background, mainly because they were mostly vibrant and stood out a lot. Considering that our video was mostly of a grainy effect due to most of it being in the past, we then changed the colours to a more grainy and de-saturated colour to match the music video.

- Final Cover - When we finished editing our cover, we were then ready to add the text and then we were finished. We looked at previous singles and albums released by The Feeling and the text was always to the left hand side, either at the top, middle or bottom. We chose to have the text at the top right because there simply wasn't enough room to have the text at the bottom and at the middle because the text would obscure the hand.

Media Literacy

What is Media Literacy?

Media Literacy is a relatively new term, however it is widely used by educators, policymakers, regulators and media producers.

It is described in three main ways:

1. Some people see it as a competence: you are media-literate or media-illiterate

2. Some see it as a social practice: how we read and make media

3. While others see it as entitlement: to protect us from danger associated with new media in particular.

Where as Senior examiners describe Media Literacy as:

Donner Cooper Clifflords - Media Literacy is the ability to create, use, analyze and moderate media products within audiences and institutions.

Pete Fraiser - A broader version that includes all oral, visual and digital forms of making people mere thoughtful towards the production of the media.

Jasin Mazoki - The ability to read a media text in visual and audio forms.

James Baker - The ability to understand how media texts are constructed and its meaning and content.

Wayne O'Brian - Being able to engage and apply knowledge to institutional factors that have an impact on the messages and values. Media Literacy also involves the understanding of how different audiences in different times and places may interpret the text in different ways.

Media Literacy has been defined in many different ways and by the five senior examiners. But the definition always incorporates the visual and oral sides of media, creativity and the understanding of media texts through several audiences.

My Definition of Media Literacy: Media literacy is the understanding of how a media text is processed by different audiences and the ability to be able to read a media text in different forms, oral and visual.