Welcome

Welcome to my A2 media blog. I chose to create a music video to Change (in the house of flies) by Deftones and for my ancillary texts I chose to produce a complimentary DVD cover and website. I hope you enjoy.

My music video

Ancillary Text-Website

For one of my ancillary texts I chose to create a website for my page. I made a webpage which included an introduction to the band, tour dates, photos of the band and also a brief written piece about the music video I created. It can be viewed by clicking the link below:

http://cheekycharlieh.wix.com/changeancillarytext

Making this website taught a lot about what goes into a band page. I researched the official bandage for tour dates and inspiration and also looked at past media students sites in order to see what was the typical format for these sites, how to meet the expectations and also how to make mine different.


I used similar bold heading just as the official band page had done and used screenshots of my music video within the piece as a background strip and also just interjected within areas of text to make my site more interesting and eye-catching.

DVD Cover- Ancillary text

I created my DVD cover on photoshop, a program I had never used before, and worked to achieve an interesting and enticing DVD cover. My DVD cover was mainly inspired by Old Fashioned fairy tale book covers as I liked the texture they appeared to have but also how highly decorated they were. To replicate this I tried to recreate gold leaf gilded vines around the images and bejeweled bees scattered over the cover. I chose to do vines and bees to highlight the emphasis of nature as I feel like fairies are associated to nature and also to represent the beauty of mother nature. I used a leather texture for my cover to also add to the tradition rustic feel that I wanted to portray.

I included quotes on people opinions of the music video on my DVD as they tend to be on all conventional DVD's, However, I chose to place them on the front, regardless of conventions, to draw more attention to them so that people knew what to expect. I didn't want people to get the wrong idea by my DVD cover and assume that the piece was calm and peaceful just because of the delicateness of the fairies and details on my cover. I also drew attention to the piece being more graphic than imagined by including a screenshot of the blood covered hands and a warning. On the back of my DVD cover I included a warning of the graphic and gory content and an age rating so that people that I deemed as too young for the content would know not to view it. Age classifications have been put on British films since 1912 by the BBFC (British Board of Film Classification). This is to notify audiences of the age at which they are mature enough to view it. This age classification is compulsory on all DVD's in the UK and is to prevent young audiences viewing content that is not suitable for them.

Question 1

My vlog in regards to answering question 1: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions in real media products.
link to my vlog answering evaluation question 1:

                      -->Walli-e establishing shot (referenced in my answer)

The notes for my vlog:

 I challenged one common media convention and form in regards to rock genre music videos as in the main with songs similar to change in the house of flies, they have a very slow, somber nature to match with the slow pace of the music. I challenged this style of music video in that my music video was not dark and lifeless throughout. In my music video I chose to start up beat and bright to make a strong contrast between the fairies life before and after her freedom and happiness was taken away more prominent and shocking. However, i found in my audience research that they found that before the sadness arises in my music video my piece was too happy and light and didn't fit with the song. Therefore, if i could do it again i would of made the ripping off of the wings happen sooner so that the sadness in the song was also present in the music video.

One way in which i used a common media convention in my piece was keeping the identity of the person taking the fairies wings off concealed. I did this, as many media products such as gang violence films do, to show that fear and abuse have no face and also to put my viewers on edge and to hint to them that this person with a concealed identity was up to no good. I chose to do this as i noticed when researching attack the block that the fight scene was made more scary and threatening by the fact that you could not tell who was the hood and also couldn't tell that they were just young teenage boys and not a bigger threat. Therefore i decided that by playing on this convention i could subconsciously hint to my audience to be wary of this character and that he was up to no good.

I also used another common technique in many media products which was using an establishing shot. I used an establishing shot at the start of my music video to set the scene. I chose to do a hyperlapse to show the sun rising as the piece began which was to symbolize light and happiness and a hyperlapse of a sunset at the end to show that as the sun goes away so does the fairies happiness and freedom. One example of a successful establishing shot is in walli-e. It zooms out from a closeup of walli sorting out trash in the beginning of the film to reveal the piles of waste surrounding him. Except instead of showing my character first i wanted to prepare my audience for the sinister nature of the piece represented by the dark silhouettes of the tree and its spindly branches.

Another common media convention that I decided to incorporate in my music video was the dark overlay that I put over my shots as the story got darker. These dark, mono tonal overlays are often used in rock and metal music videos to create a grungey and dull atmosphere to best compliment the music piece so i decided to replicate this. However, unlike other rock music videos, I chose to start off with a bright and colourful format which progressively darkened with the storyline and I felt this added to showing the decline in not only her freedom but also her happiness.The original music video for change in the house of flies has the dark overlays that I previously discussed which make the piece seem more edgy and moody.

A technique I used that is common in many films and music videos is that to show a passing of time I used fades in between shots. To show the change in age I chose to put two similar shots of the young and old fairy after eachother and a fade to show it was the same person just older. This is similar to many music videos such as Trisha Paytas video for Lost and Found and for me i felt it was the most effective way to show the change in age in a way that it would be easy for the audience to understand.

In conclusion I used, developed and challenged forms and conventions present in real media products throughout my media piece in a way that I felt would be effective and also in a way that would best convey the emotions i wanted to to my audience.

Question 2

I decided to present question 2 in the form of a power point presentation.

Evaluation Question 2 A2

Question 3

What have you learned from my audience feedback?

Audience Response Report

I have learned a lot from my audience feedback in regards to what aspects my audience enjoyed and what my audience felt I could have improved on.
For the first and second question in my survey I asked how well my audience felt my DVD cover went with my music video. In the main, I got a positive feedback saying that my use of similar imagery linked the two well together, however, some said it could be improved through having a darker colour scheme instead of the bright colour scheme I chose to use. In regards to this I knew it would confuse some people as my piece is a lot darker than the DVD colour scheme that I chose to use. However I had two reasons for doing so. One reason being that I wanted it to be eye catching and to make the contrast with the darkness to follow more intense and also to replicate the fairytale book covers I based them off of.

For my third question I asked how well my website went with my music video and why and if not what could I improve. Many said they felt the two complimented eachother, more so than the DVD cover, and many said this was due to it sharing a 'similar theme' to the music video and also that it replicated a 'fan website. However, some said that it was too 'minimalistic', which I accept as I chose to use a minimalistic theme to draw attention to the photo of the wings.

When asking my audience if they would watch my video again, I got an overwhelmingly positive response of people saying they either definitely would or maybe would watch it again. This made me feel that many found my piece interesting to watch and enjoyed it (despite it's dark tone) and so I this made me feel that I executed the task of creating a music video successfully.

I also asked what age my viewers were so I could see if I hit my target audience of people above 12 and all of my audience were 12 or above and in the main were 15-17.

For my 6th question I asked if my audience understood my piece which for me was one of my most important aims. All of my respondents said that they either completely understood or understood in the main which made me feel I achieved what I set out to do. When creating my music video, I knew that I had picked a difficult subject matter to convey without being explicit and so I was glad to hear that I was able to make it understandable for my audience without showing what I wanted to in a black and white format.

Finally, I asked how well my audience felt my video went with the track. The main response I received was that my video fitted well with the track 'after the man entered'. I anticipated this would be the response as I knew that the darker imagery I used matched best with the track, however, others said that the music fitted well because it 'set the tense atmosphere' and also because the imagery I used worked well with the lyrics. When creating my music video, I wanted my music video to match the lyrics and correspond in the sense that they followed what the lyrics were implying in the song. From the feedback I received I felt that I achieved this well.

Question 4

I answered question 4 in a prezzi format:

Editing

I wanted to show two screenshots of the editing of my piece to show the amount of shots present in my piece and how tightly they were edited together.

Why did I give my music video a 12 rating?

The British Board of Classification states:

At 12A, moderate violence is allowed but it should not dwell on detail. There should be no emphasis on injuries or blood, but occasional gory moments may be permitted if they can be justified by their context (for example brief sight of bloody injury in a medical drama).

Action sequences and weapons may be present at 12A or 12, and there may be long fight scenes or similar. Weapons which might be easily accessible to 12 year olds (such as knives) should not be glamorised in 12A and 12 works.

Sexual violence, such as scenes of rape or assault, may only be implied or briefly and discreetly indicated at 12A and 12. Such scenes must also have a strong contextual justification.

I chose to make my piece a 12 as although there is gore present within my piece it is not long lasting and so follows the guidelines that violence  should not be 'dwelled upon' and also that gore can be permitted if justified which the gore present in my piece is due to the lyrics within song and the link the wings have with freedom and the removal of it.

As far as abuse and sexual abuse my piece is interpretative but the indications of abuse that I wanted to portray in my piece are discreet.

In regards to the nature of my piece being a horror or thriller the BBFC state that:

Some horror films are passed at this category. Moderate physical and psychological threat is permitted at 12 or 12A as long as horror sequences are not too frequent or sustained and the overall tone is not disturbing.

For more information on the 12/12A category there is a link below to the BBFC website which discusses the classification of 12/12A in more detail.

http://www.bbfc.co.uk/what-classification/12a-and-12

More inspiration that I chose to base my ancillary text off of

Book covers:
I decided to use the same stylistic gold plated leaves and decorations to incorporate into my DVD cover as I felt it would give a fairy tale book effect. I wanted my DVD cover to be clearly influenced by tradition fairy tale books rather than modern and the book I took most inspiration from with the style and texture of the cover was Grimms complete Fairy Tales.

       





















DVD covers:
I was especially influenced by the Snow White DVD cover and used ideas from it such as the oval shape of the pictures purely because it reminded me of the pictures you would find in lockets and so I felt it gave an old fashioned feel. This concept of oval shaped pictures was also present in Cinderella.

Ancillary text influence

My main influence for my DVD cover was to make it resemble a fairy tale book. I researched old style fairy tale books in order to gain inspiration and became especially fond of ones with embossed plants or vines. This is what inspired me to try and create my own embossed vines on the front and back of my cover.

Here is some examples of the covers I wanted my DVD cover to resemble:

For my DVD cover I included golden vines and little gold and silver flies to make it not only look similar to the heavily decorated books produced by the Brother Grimm but also make sure it still included bug imagery and so therefore I included golden flies.