COS - Final Promotional Campaign and Evaluation - 9141

Final Production

Navigation

Track Ideas
Digipack production task
Kygo analysis
Justin Bieber analysis
Music video ideas
Analysis of promotion campaign
Reflection on Brighton
Analysis of camera techniques in music videos
Technical analysis
Treatment
Pitch
Recce
Risk assesment
Digi- pack plan
Storyboard
Lyrics for track
Reflection on shoot
Updates
Animatic
Questionnaire
Audience feedback


Evaluation

Question 1 - Forms and Conventions - In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?


Goodwin (Dancing in the distraction factory 1994)

• When Goodwin’s framework is applied to our production several key elements of the theory become clear. Our video doesn’t fit in with the wider characteristics of dance music as there is no dancing, flashing lights and happiness; this is the style of Rudimental, and fits in with their wider cohesive image.
• However it fits the dark underground image created within soul, due to the emotional elements and sadness created representing the struggle of people through the protagonists homelessness.

•  Performance is not conventional of drum and bass, however we opted to use it to create two lines of action, therefore making our video more interesting and enabling comparisons between the protagonist and the artist.
• The link between the music and visuals is amplified as the whole song is based around going home, and this is what we’ve tried to show within our video, the song also describes a struggle which we have tried to represent within the protagonists struggle with alcoholism
• In terms of the notion of looking, the artist looks directly at the audience as if she is talking to them; this along with her body language give the impression of a visual motif which is a powerful tool in constructing her metanarrative as a featuring artist. The protagonist doesn’t make eye contact with the camera, giving the impression we are watching him from a distance, this is voyeuristic because the camera gives prevalence to him and he is contained within the diegetic world.

Music video form  

• The form of a music video is apparent within the intercutting between performance and narrative.

• The emotional colouring of the song reflects the slow mood of the song, about missing home, as our video is in black and white which represent depression and sadness due to the lack of colour.

• The cutting rate also reflects the pace of the song as certain parts are fast paced, but time expansion also helps to add an emotional element to reflect the hard hitting lyrics.

• The female vocalist has a rather powerful voice which is reflected in the ideologically message behind our video, attempting to reflect the homeless as more of a person.

Metanarrative

• Rudimental fits into several music genres including drum and bass and soul.

• The particular song we chose is more towards soul music, however Rudimental as a group have a theme within their music videos as a very hard hitting and powerful, feel good narrative; therefore we decided to look at homelessness, as they have previously looked at overcoming disability and poverty.

• Our video follows the conventions of other rudimental videos as the narrative follows the same narrative arc, of a beginning middle and end, by starting showing his as homeless, following him on his journey and reaching closure when he gets home, which is a common feature within rudimental videos.
• To a large degree our video is very similar to their particular style; however we opted to cut between narrative and performance, as most of their successful songs fit into the category of drum and bass, in which performance is very rarely used. However as the song fits more into soul, we thought it appropriate to use a strong female character, with the image of a powerful voice, as this is largely a convention of soul songs.

• Tranquil due to sunset and framed artistically (rule of thirds), fits in with both drum and bass, and the beauty/ maturity of soul, Urban graffiti, fits in with urban nature of drum and bass and rudimental, the black and white is focusing on soul, as it is more emotive and classy, and personally soul brings to mind old love movies, that would be in black and white, and the white/ black keys of a piano.
• The poster builds on the urban theme created on the front pane, and we have edited the sky to make it more visually pleasing like the back pane, it is conventional of the urban music due to its visualisation of youth, which is the forefront of urban society.

Meaning

• Our production is relatively closed as it is clear that the protagonist is homeless due to him sleeping rough and begging; therefore it is a focused viewing encouraging repeat viewing, however certain elements such as why he is an alcoholic is polysemic as some people may read it as anti social rather than an escape from reality

 Binary opposition

• Within our video there are binary opposites to reflect differences between the rich and the poor, constructed through various techniques within mise en scene and editing
•  Ant, being homeless is clearly the poor, and is positively represented due to the prevalence he is given within the video, as he has nearly all of the screen time

• One such technical code is the time lapse of people walking past Ant on the street, this shows the clear comparison between the many and the invisible few, Ant is at eye level which gives him prevalence, marking him as positive, and those who ignore him do not receive the same emotional connection, therefore they are marked as negative as they are shown to be blind to his vulnerability.

Semiotics

• The grey and black theme of our production and most elements of our digipack help to connote depression and sadness, this signifies that the entire colour is drained from Ants life and the situation he is in is bleak.
• The semiotic of the alcohol helps to signify he has nothing left and provides the connotation that he has hit rock bottom and has nothing to live for, as a common stereotype of alcoholics is that they are ‘losers’ which contributes to their marginalisation within society, this contributes largely to our progressive ideology within our text as we show him to be human and portray his emotions rather than just an alcoholic.
• The broken bottle on our digipack is part of the paradigmatic relationship that connotes the broken lives of the homeless, as it becomes a symbol of ant as he is frequently seen with it, it has a polysemic meaning as it could also represent ant leaving that life, as when it is featured in the video, it is the turning point for him heading home, possibly the representation of him breaking the bottle is destroying his life as a homeless drunk and turning his life around and heading home.

Indexical signs

• Our piece is rather iconic as we have attempted to show Ant as a normal person and express his emotions, this is to portray the message that anyone can fall down on their luck one day and end up living on the streets.
• An indextual sign is the 180 degree low angle arc of ant drinking which keeps a tower block in the corner which is widely associated with tough working class people, representing the harshness of the streets and the alcohol represents Ant trying to shut out his harsh lifestyle and escape the world he lives in.

Postmodern style of the video

• The video is postmodern in style; this is evident in many of the editing techniques such as the time expansion and the hyper realism of the HD cameras and their high frame rate.
• This is important in the dance genre, as even though this song isn’t particularly drum and bass, the band mainly fits into that characteristics, the genre is considered futuristic due to the wide use of computers in production and the association with raves, largely the lasers and lights which are such a large feature of the genre. Therefore making our video postmodern helps to link it in with the metanarrative of our group.
• We also used several time lapses to show time passing, this is very much a postmodern technique that contributes to the isolation of Ant and helps to show him thinking, possibly debating whether to go home or not, making the journey home more emotive.

Discourse

• Our video is based around a discourse on wealth, it promotes the residual ideology of showing that the poorest of the poor (homeless) in the form of ant as vulnerable, and tries to shine some light on the negative stereotypes of the homeless, and instead of denying them, explaining the wider reason why they occur; for example with the alcoholism, instead of denying that a certain amount of homeless people have drug problems, as it is obvious, our video tries to explain it is his way of dealing with the depression of being homeless, and shows it as a vulnerability (him passed out at the beginning) rather than anti social behaviour. 
• Empathy is created by prevalence, as ant is in near enough every shot, and close ups provide an insight into his situation. The digipack also challenges the dominant ideology in wider society, that the homeless are inhuman, this is challenged by ant enjoying the scenery of the cliff with the peaceful sky, this is a normal activity that a human would enjoy, therefore showing the beautiful side of sleeping rough, and living under that sky, one of the reason this is one of the only coloured features of the campaign, as it is one of the few positives.

Challenging dominant ideologies

• There is a progressive ideological discourse on poverty as the text is created to create empathy for Ant, even though he is shown partaking in deviant actions such as drinking on the street to the point of passing out. However we attempt to show his as isolated and non-existent through certain shots such as the time lapses of the day passing him by and people not acknowledging his existence, which makes his actions feel like an act of depression, to make the pains within the life of a homeless person less prominent. This creates empathy for the character as the audience will feel sorry for him as it is clear that he needs help.
• This also links to a secondary discourse of alcoholism. The disease is usually marked as bad within society and people are regularly marginalised within society, however we create empathy with Ant as we show him as more than an alcoholic, due to the prevalence we give him, and the way in which we show his home at the end of the video.

Question 2 - Combination of main product and ancillary texts - How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

Question 3 - Significance of Audience Feedback - What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Question 4 - Role and use of new media in various stages of the production - How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

Anthony Pitts 9152 - Final Promotional Campaign and Evaluation

Final Music Video

Final Digipak

 

 

Final Magazine Advert

Question 1 - In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Forms and Conventions

The brief was to create a promotional campaign for our chosen artist, Rudimental; which consisted of a music video, a digipak and a magazine advertisement for the album.

Goodwin (Dancing in the distraction factory 1994)

• Goodwin came up with a set of characteristics which he believed was conventional in music videos. Goodwin's theory of relationship between the lyrics and visuals in a music videos in our piece is amplified as there is a strong link between the narrative and the lyrics of the track. However, our video does not fit in with the wider characteristics of dance music as there is no dancing, bright lights and happiness, in fact it is the opposite.  

• Our track is called 'Home' and the lyrics say about the long journey home. From this we came up with idea for a narrative in which there is a homeless teenager who has been sleeping rough and drinking lots of alcohol who eventually returns home at the end of the track.

• However, the reason for him being homeless is not revealed to the audience. The video ends with the homeless person returning home, but you do not see his parents, nor do you see him actually enter his house. Rudimental's music falls into two different genres, dance and drum and bass.

Conventions of the form of a music video

• One significant way the form of a music video is apparent in our piece is the constant intercutting between the narrative of the song with the performance part which has lip syncing.

• Another way is the strong link between the lyrics and the visuals.

• The female singer for this song, Sinead Harnett has a distinctive grain of voice which is powerful which we have tried to incorporate in our narrative by giving the homeless person prevalence and showing how although he is homeless, he is still human.

• The emotional colouring of our video plays a significant part as our video is in black and white and the lack of colour creates a sense of depression which makes the audience feel sorry for the homeless person as like everyone else, he is human. The normal verbal communication also helps create this sense of depression.

Conventions of the genre - Dance

• Rudimental's music fits into various different genres including drum and bass and dance. Their music is very uplifting and powerful, where as this song, 'Home' is completely different compared to their other songs.

• Our video conforms to the conventions of the dance genre as it has both performance and narrative which is iconic of this genre of music.

• Our video does follow conventions of other music videos which have been released by Rudimental as like other videos, there is a narrative arc with a clear beginning, middle and end. In our video this is the homeless person sleeping rough, then his journey home and ends with him returning home.

• Other Rudimental videos have included narratives about disability (Waiting all night) and poverty (Not giving in) so we decided to do our video on homeless people.

• Home itself, fits into the soul genre which is different to the other songs released by Rudimental. Therefore, our video is conventional of the soul genre with the image of the powerful singer intercutting with the powerful narrative.

Challenging Conventions of a music video

• In many ways our video challenges conventions of the dance and drum and bass genre. For a start, in the dance genre music videos, there is generally people dancing and it is bright and colourful where as ours has no dancing and is in black and white.

• It challenges Rudimental's metanarrative as in their music videos, there is no performance, just narrative. But we incorporated the metanarrative of Sinead Harnett who sings 'Home' and in her videos there is performance as well as narrative.

Polysemic/Closed texts

• If you watch our video, I would say that it is closed as it is clear to see that the protagonist is sleeping rough as he is shown sleeping on a park bench and then later on he is shown sat it town begging. From this, you can come to the conclusion that he is homeless.

• However, in some ways, it may be seen as Polysemic as people may interpret a different meaning such as he has been out somewhere drinking and didn't make it home. Or he has run away from home and has been staying with friends as there are missing person posters which suggests that he does have a home to go to, therefore he is not homeless.  

Narrative

• Our narrative follows a homeless person on his journey home whilst there is some intercutting with performance. Within the narrative, there is only one line of action and it is filmed in a continuous way.

• Our narrative was influenced by the music video for the song 'A Team' which was sung by Ed Sheeran. This video, like ours is in black and white. But this follows a different group within society, a drug dealer who has to become a prostitute so she can pay for her drugs.
                               

 

Binary Opposition

• The binary oppositions present in our music video is between the rich and the poor. The homeless person is clearly the poor. This is shown in a progressive way in the video as he is given prevalence which you would not expect for a lower class person.

• The opposite is shown during the time lapse shot in which the homeless person is sat in town and the camera is filming at his eye level. During this shot, people walk past him and do not pay him any attention because they feel they are better than him. But one woman at the end of the video, does try and give him money connoting that not all rich people are the same, and some people do feel sorry for the homeless.

Postmodern

• The style of our piece is post modern as this is seen with the editing features we have used such as the time lapse shots and the reverse shot of the train which shows the train leaving when the original footage was of the train arriving at the station and stopping. Making our video fits in with the metanarrative of the group Rudimental as the majority of their songs are dance/drum and bass which means there is lots of modern technology involved such as lasers for events like raves and festivals.

Ideology

• Normally in the media, the homeless people are shown in a regressive way and are not given any prevalence. They are shown to be drug abusers who sit there drinking and taking drugs, taking part in anti social behaviour. However, our video gives the homeless prevalence and does not show the bad sides of the homeless, it does not include the drug abuse, as people already know this is what they generally do. But rather than showing everyone that, it shows the fact he is vulnerable and is drinking alcohol because he feels isolated as he is alone. The non verbal language shows him looking depressed which connotes that he is not homeless by choice.

 

• The rear pane of the digipak which we created also challenges the dominant ideology of homeless people in our society. The homeless people can be seen sat on the bench with the sea, sky and cliffs which can create. This pane creates peace as the sea looks calm and the beautiful sky shows that sleeping rough does not always have its disadvantages. For many people in society, this is a view which people would enjoy seeing. The rest of the digipak is in black and white. However, this lack of colour is used to connote both sides of the story of being homeless. It makes it feel depressing and therefore the audience have sympathy. Where as the front and back panes which are in colour help to show that you can make life good out of a bad situation.
• Like the front pane and rear pane of the digipak, the magazine advert is in colour as well to create the same effect. We also edited the sky in the advert so it wasn't boring and grey where it was overcast, we tried to brighten it up. However, this advert connotes modern day youth dressed in an urban way and you can see that one of the homeless people is handing the other one a lighter.
  
  
  
  
  Question 2 - How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?  

 

Question 3 - What have you learned from your audience feedback?

 

Question 4 - How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?