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

For our music video we have used a large variety of media technologies to help us to create a professional media product, the Music Video and the Digipak/Advert. In all different area's and creation of the project, focusing mainly on pre-production, production and post-production, a wide range of media technologies were able to help us maintain a high standard of work, creating what looks like a some what professional video. There has been many advantages and disadvantages with the media technologies we focused on. We focused on using a combination of software throughout so we could then focus thoroughly on building up information (Writing post blog updates, and production updates) this helped us to be fully prepared for our end evaluation. We found that media technologies played an extreme role in our creation period, enabling us to try out new software we never even knew about, experimenting with new ideas and learing a lot throughout the process.

Our main technology focus was Blogger. This is an online multimedia interface which worked as a great way to record our work that had been completed, and keep up to date with our idea's, planning and production work. We were given a series of pre-production work to create at the start, which really helped to process our idea's and creation through a variety of media technoglogies again. E.g. Powerpoint and Prezzi's. Blogger also worked well as all of our group members were able to share our idea's when not in lesson, and record our previous work updates. Where the World Wide Web is the largest piece of media technology today, it has influenced our idea's greatly as we were able to look at past music video's that have been created, and anaylze and inbed them into our blog's for research and comparison. We were also able to get idea's that related to our current theme of R&B/Pop. Blogger has really enabled us to stay organised and keep on track of all of our work.

We have been able to share of final video and our focus groups, which show the audience's mixed views on our work. There wasn't really any disadvanteges or using Blogger and the internet, just the worry of if it ever went down or lost connection, which we had to be prepared for by constantly saving our work as we went on. It was apart from that very reliable and easily accesed, enabling you to work from home, school or wherever you desired place.

Apart from the pre-production tasks and the recording and planning of the video, we used a significant amount of software to produe the filming of the video. We used very high tech Digital Sony HD Camcorders. These were really good as they produced a really good picture, which looked clear and professional. The hard drive was very strong and sustainable lasting a long time, which was really trustworthy as we knew we could rely on it. The battery pack's was easy accesable and easy to remove and charge. The camera's worked really well with the MAC's which was very helpful as we worked on them in the lesson, and the work was able to be transfered straight from the camera onto the Digital Editing System called Final Cut Express.

This was also another big part of our production, infact the most important part. We were able to use this to again create a professional video, with lots of cuts, pacing together the video creatively, being able to cut and add different shots. It was really easy just to Log and Transfer the shots straight from the camera. Adding in voice clips and footage into the timeline, which was also helpful as we were able to see how much more footage we had to film once we added new footage in. It was also really handy considering we were doing a music video, it enabled us to sync the lead singer (Roger)'s voice with our footage and make it exact timing. We had to be careful with Final Cut Express as on ocassion's it jumps, which isn't good for the timing and syncing of our sequel.
Another technology that enabled us to connect when were not in school was Facebook. We were able to upload our video on here and get some more audience feedback from all different age groups, not just the focused target audience. We uploadedcriticism we received. It was also a helpful piece of technology as we were able to talk to each other about scheduling and rescheduling filming dates and work with each other sending blog work when we were not at school.

The Internet was the main technology in our research. Google and Wikipedia enabled us to research practically everything we needed, from song lyrics to images that would help us and give inspiration to our video. We looked at companies and buisness of music videos's and what they look for in music video's, which we found was a story line that really engages the audience. YouTube helped us find video's that were relevent to our chosen genre and theme. We watched and analysed music videos that were an essential in our research and the pre-production of our video. This was really helpful as we could overlook over video's people have made, editing them and analyzing them in a way we would when our video is being marked, so we managed to understand what would be looked for. We also got a strong uderstanding of the conventions of music videos are and what makes them successful in the music industry. This really prepared us for our project, knowing fully what we had to do and what we was doing.

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

We started of with asking the group about their interests and what subjects they studied, just to show extra backing information which could portray the age group and target audience. The positive feedback we received from the focus group included a lot of comments about how it worked really well as a professional and realistic video. We also found through our feedback that the changing of colours and our use of filters worked well and made our music video look professional as well as keeping the attentions throughout the shots and the narrative of Roger narrating and singing, and the storyline was kept and not lost, which we were worried about because our video contained lots of short clips and it's montage set up. Someone also quoted "A dream world" was an interesting interpretation that we had from our focus group, one member of the group saw the coloured sequences to be an almost 'dream like state' - relating to this intoxicated world Alice loves in.

We as a group found that the reason for this was the locations we had chosen, looking at our chosen target audience starting and focusing at the teenage age group, so the urban edge, ‘bad Alice’ we created portrayed this really well, showing a large connection with the audience. We simply added a leather jacket, dark eye shadow and piercing’s, which again helped to create this ‘bad Alice’. We wanted to create a party scene to also reflect over this teenage audience connection, but we found that when we had filmed this, the framings looked really unprofessional, even though the idea was to film it very scruffy and as if it was overlooking the wild party style Alice. We got rid of the idea due to the bad framing and also got feedback on the shots from the party scene, and the audience thoroughly agreed it was a much better idea as it then of the shot that looked professional. Our music video received a great deal of positive feedback, through out focus group and research work, which we were extremely happy with.

Our focus group managed to show us that our age group thought that the music video was focused towards them as our target audience, which was our main aim, that’s why we chose a group of teenagers to watch it first. We also found that no other aspects that would make our music video suitable for both a younger and an older group of audiences, and we had chosen the suitable age. I think we connected very well with the audience through our chosen shots and editing. We choose to portray as an intoxicated teenager, showing the connection with the teenage drug and alcohol use. We wanted to show drug use but not using what looked liked drugs, but we didn’t want to increase drug use and look like we were supporting it, so we thought of relevant ideas that connected to the wonderland theme and choose to use glitter instead.


You see Alice using playing cards, again connecting to the idea of ‘Alice in Wonderland’ showing the Alice then picking up the card, as you think Alice was going to sniff the glitter you see her blow it, again contrasting the audiences views and showing mystery as it wasn’t expected. We were pleased to see that our focus group understood the extended metaphor of our music video and how we included the theme of drugs but not to the extent where drugs are actually on display, they are only signified in our music video. The feedback from the focus group about improving our video was about more of a story line to the video and to have maybe a different scene or location added to the video. This would had given us a more variety of clips to edit and make the video look more visually interesting and appealing to the viewer, which was also mentioned in other feedback.
It is nice to see that our focus group was fully captivated by our music video, and that the audience understood conventions and aspects that we included. We were also really glad that the audience felt very 'free.' Watching the video and felt able to draw their own thoughts and escape into the world that Alice was in and most importantly enjoy the music video throughout.
These comments made us feel very positive about our video, we were able to give us tips and guidelines for if in future we happened to create another music video, where we would involve more locations and a more scenes that expand the story to a wider extent.

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

When designing the ancillary texts (CD cover and advertising poster) we wanted to incorporate the initial idea of using Alice and Roger mixed together, showing their relationship and looking at the Alice in Wonderland’ theme that the music video we had created was based on.

The CD cover was linked very closely to the music video as the front cover had a close up image of Roger standing looking to his right. It is a very simple photo that has been created through us looking at other R&B stars images, performing subtle poses. Roger was edited in black and white, and the background in colour (Purple and Green). Where our background was a sunset we didn’t want to use the obvious sunset colours, so just to add interest we changed our colours, again identifying Alice’s juxtaposed personality. We found that the use of purple, being the colour of good judgement and it is said that if you surround yourself with purple you will have peace of mind. It is also used to calm over activity or energize from depression, which we found worked really well with ‘Alice’s’ depressive state, that’s why she turned too illegal substances. Where purple is the mix of blue (calm, cooling and expansive) and red is (focusing, dynamic and active energy) and the most obvious reason of love, which brings her connection to Roger. Together they portray two different mind states that she undergoes. On the other hand the green comes from the envious state of mind. It also means youthful and vigorous. We felt that it partly showed the connection between life and nature – connecting to her drug addiction. We felt these two significant colours related to both the narrative of the music video and other media references. We went onto changing the colours of the characters eyes as they become the dominant foreground image on the black and white background, standing out hugely. We kept Roger’s eye as blue and changed ‘Alice’s’ eye to green. We again felt this connected with her envious love to Roger. We also felt that having there eyes and half there faces showed that there rocky stage in their relationship where they was never really able to see eye to eye.

The back of cover of the CD we feel creates interest as the background image that is shown relates to the setting of the music video. You see the woods and a tiny figure in the bottom right corner, being Alice. We really liked this image as it sets the scene as a sort of thumbnail for the video. This also shows the continuity between the music video and the ancillary texts as the forest being the home of ‘The rabbit home’ equalling ‘Wonderland’. We kept the colour scheme the same on the back half as the front, having the image in colour and just the grass in black and white. Where we introduced the singer on the front cover of the CD, we felt on the back we should just have ‘Alice’ and her connection with ‘Wonderland’ as an overview of the storyline. We added in a quote ‘You never know how strong you are, till being strong is your only option’ we really liked this and felt it would be nice to have a quote on the back page, said by the artist. We felt this really showed his emotional side, and considering one of the shots on the front is of Roger looking emotional, it worked really well.

The advertising poster that we have created consists of the a main image of Roger’s faced, merged into a picture of the White Rabbit’s stop watch and a deck of playing cards. We felt that they were two big points in the ‘Alice in Wonderland’ film and were used a lot in our video, connecting with our main idea. We decided to do this for many reasons, such as making the audience aware of the idea for the music video. We also wanted to differentiate the idea of the CD cover and the Digipak, just so if the audience saw one and then the other they would be intrigued at the difference portrayed. We didn’t want to give too much away through the advert that is why we decided to leave Alice out. Where she is the main part of the video, we wanted to give a clue/connection to the theme without adding Alice on there. The ancillary texts that we have created as a group accompany the music video very strongly, setting the scene of a fictional story by introducing the characters and the props. This shows that the texts would appeal to the audience as they could become involved in the fictional world of ‘Alice in Wonderland’ actually feeling like they was part of this story. This means that they could engage thoroughly into this dream world and enjoy the CD and in turn the music video. This means that the ancillary texts create a sense of escapism to the audience which is another uses of gratification that has been used when creating the texts. Overall we feel that we have created very thoroughly thought about ancillary texts, that you can see have had a lot of design time spent on them, which really helps to accompany the music video that we have created. These texts make the audience aware of the music video and album and give them an interest and desire to buy the product. We use the eye contact of ‘Alice’ and ‘Roger’ on the front cover to connect and engage with the audience, drawing them in and making them intrigued to buy the album. I feel the texts use the Uses of Gratifications theory very well, as they give the audience constant information about the album, allowing the target audience to identify with the characters through the use of colour and imagery and they also allow the audience to escape from there everyday lives and become fixated in this dream world of ‘Wonderland’.

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

Music videos are a big part of today’s media life. Every video’s form depends on the music genre it is for. And considering there are many different genre categories, this was a big part of the music video creation process. Overall music videos tend to use a lot of cuts, discarding a good 60 % of the video that you had to start with, which we found was a lot harder then we had thought as the video contained many quick shots that were just seconds long. The average music video consists of being around three and four minutes long. When we was creating our video we watched a variety of different genre’s of videos and found that the video also carries some relation, if not a lot of relation to the songs lyric’s, which relates back to the Andrew Goodwin theory where there is a strong relationship between the lyrics and the visuals.

This was a very strong point in our video, using an engaing storyline to keep the audience intrigued. We focused a lot on the Goodwin theory and it was a big input in the video, precisely looking at the idea of 'Did we take it to far?' and 'Did we chase the rabbit into wonderland?' Two rhetorical questions that were narrowly answered in our video. We decided that we liked the idea as it gives the video a storyline and something that follows through out the video. Once we had our basic video and idea, and chosen song (Example – Stay Awake) we decided that one of the lines within the song is ‘did we chase the rabbit into wonderland’ we decided we were going to base our idea around this Alice in Wonderland theme.

The genre of our video is RnB/dubstep. The conventions include; artist performance (we choose not to have a band, as it helped us with our idea of centring it around just a lead singer, just like the artist of the real video. We also included fast cuts, various background lighting; locations in the studio for our lead singer roles, and the forest and Camden Market and train station for Alice. Glitter and cards were our main Mise-en-scene shots as they related to the ideal theme of ‘Alice in Wonderland’.

I learnt that one of the conventions of a real music video consisted of signifier’s to represent the type of genre the music video is by costume choice which we included in our music video. We focused on this convention because we looked at the forms and conventions of a real media product and recognised that this was a major part in letting our target audience decode this. Another thing that I learnt from looking at real media products was the locations that were chosen. For our lead role parts we decided to place our singing (Roger) in a studio, connecting to the love of music that is shown through a recording studio. We have used this media convention to signify not only what target audience we are aiming at but to portray an idea our chosen theme. Where our chosen target audience was from 16+, it juxtaposed the theme idea of ‘Alice in Wonderland’ as that is a children’s book that is loved by all ages. We also felt that our audience could also contain young adults, as they could relate to this convention because they can reminisce and look back as fairytales are a big part of people’s lives when growing up. We choose to portray Alice as ‘Bad Alice’ as an intoxicated teenager who feels ‘wonderland’ is her state of mind when intoxicated with illegal substances. We portrayed the idea of drugs and imagination as it can be shot wherever the desired place, as long as it contained correct framing that had been shot properly. Throughout the creation of this video I have learnt that real music genre conventions are the build up of creating a target audience. Thee music genre conventions we have added into our music video are focusing on having one role, an attractive black male, which then related well with our chosen genre of hip-hop and rap/ R&B.

I believe our choices of chosen location's being = forest, rabbit hole, party scene, woods, house and the studio for Roger, and the chosen costume = Alice's dress being the main focus, showing an automatic connection with the Character. This also relates back to the intertextual reference to Alice. All of the mise-en-scene together really made the audience able to decode the signifies to understand the set target audience and age group. This enabled us to really work with the mise-en-scene of the video, relating all our shots to the chosen genre and decode the signifiers to understand the age group.I felt that our edit's matched the song really well, fitting and syncing in especially at the points that were sung by Roger. Our idea of montage throughout meant that we had lots of small snippet shots, this related back to the theory of time and motif which is means the reacurrance throughout. This connects with the whole idea of the rabbit and the time element, and how he always has a stop watch, which is seconds long, so we choose to add in second's long. The quick time element also shows Alice's insanity and the rush and confusion in her brain.

Director's Commentary Version

Focus Group - Evaluation of Final Music Video

Final Music Video - 'Stay Awake'

Production Update

This was a shot from our selection of shots that we filmed to break up the shots of me and Roger. We felt that there was too many shots of me and Roger just flicking back and fourth from us too. So we luckily managed to film on a date where there was sun, considering it was the middle of October we really didn't expect it to be hot. I really like the shot as it is a rotating shot where the sun is breaking through gaps in the tree's. It was also good as it was in time with the music and worked really well where we placed the shot. It also looks very magical and relates really well with our inspirational idea of Alice in Wonderland. The idea of nature was also a big part of the video, considering we used the bright lighting a lot as it shows the idea of our main character Alice being on a form of illegal substances. It was also important as we placed Alice's rabbit hole outside and that was where we filmed most of our Alice footage, staring at the light. Our idea was the rabbit hole wasn't actually wonderland like in the films and books, but wonderland would represent her being intoxicated and that is the world that she sees when she is in this state of mind.

Production Update

This was our favourite shot out of the video. In terms of interxtuality and conforming to conventions of a Rap/R&B style music video, we decided to use the term of taking drugs. The main reaeson was the common useage of drug use in these style videos, believing it was essential to use this. More so the idea of intertexuality. We choose to use glitter as a form of drug, as we didn't want to promote the fact of using drugs through our video to the audience. We watched some video's where they had portrayed certain things just by the surroundings and mise-en-scene of the video and they therefore made you know without telling you without it happening. For example 'A Team' by Ed Sheeran was about drugs but is shown very hidden and through lyrics. We started the shot and cut it up, with me creating lines of glitter on a playing card, using another playing card. I then lifted the card up and started lifting it towards my face, but i then took it away and automatically blew it to the camera. We think people get the automatic perception that I was going to sniff it. We choose to put a strobe filter on the shot, and considering the glitter was a variety of gold, silver, green, red and blue, we wanted the glitter to really glisten in the light, and this effect really made the colours enhance and stand out. We also had to watch where we positioned the shot as we had to make sure we knew where the light was shining, and if it caught the glitter or not, so we had to do some practice shots. The idea of this shot stil related back to our formal of idea of using lyrics through the video, portraying the fact that the drugs are 'taking it to far'.

Production Update - Eye close up's

Both of these images are used in the video as eye focus shots. We choose to get shots of both of our eyes as it shows that we saw eye to eye after our relationship had ended. We choose to show them both at different points in the video as it then showed the differentiality between our lives. The idea of the video was to portray the relationship between me and Roger, and how alcohol and drugs constantly got in the way and ruined things. I turnt into this weird addict, and just end up splitting us up. So throughout the video you see how 'Alice'reacts to the drugs and how it connects her with 'Wonderland'.

After we had worked with all our eye close ups, we were able to edit and combine the two characters together through our introduction to the music video and establishing the two leading characters, and their connection - through the lyrics. After playing about and decided how we was going to sync our characters, originally planning to use an action match, we decided to use Final Cut Express. It was a really good chance to practice and improve our editing skills and developed skills that we never had. It enabled us to create shots such as the one shown above where we overlapped the close up of My eye, fading over and into a medium shot of Roger singing directly to the camera and to the audience, including the audience as part of the song, as if Roger is singing to them, and again using that eye focus that really draws the audience in to the video, showing a large connection and bringing entertainment and interest.

Progress Report

- Today we filmed the idea of showing two side's to 'Alice's' character. We decided to contrast between the natural waking up in the morning view, and the shot below which shows 'Alice' visiting 'Wonderland' (Intoxicated). We decided to put this shot with me walking through the house and the normal door, showing how the audience can portray 'Alice' as two different characters, showing how life is just an ongoing party (Which relates to the teenage audience). We added people in the background of the shot, but no one talks or acknowledges her, which is another reason she again feels alone and feels she has to turn to drug's. The idea of this scene was to create a typical convention of a Rap/Pop music video, portraying this lively, party scene atmosphere.

The shot above connects well with the shot we filmed last week. We decided the controversial idea showing the two personality's worked really well. We decided that we needed a more natural shot of Alice, just simply walking through the door. I think this gains alot of mystery as Alice could be walking into anywhere and you wouldn't know. We agreed that if we filmed Alice as if she is leaving the room and coming back inside would be an interesting conclusion to the narrative, having Alice walking simply, either just looking straight towards the camera of too bed, obviously in a mental/stable mind, leaving behind the worries and troubles and of course her alter ego of Alice outside. Relating again back to the lyrics before of 'taking it too far' and leaving Wonderland behind, to agree with the lyrics that Roger is singing, and show the connection.

Progress Report

Wednesday 9th November - Camden Market/Station

- Today we went up to Camden Market in London, we filmed a selection of footage throughout the markets, in the shops and by the train station. I was dressed in the Alice in Wonderland costume, and when I was walking round got a great deal of weird looks and comments, which was good as we kept the camera rolling for most the time we was in Camden, so we could get naturalistic shots of everyone's reaction. We decided it would be good if i looked at everyone like they were weird when they was watching me as it gave the effect of my insanity. We also placed the camera still in front of me, and then filmed at the train station of me just standing there staring still, whilst everyone that got of the train walked past me, again staring, whilst I just stand and stare right into the camera.

-We filmed a shot of me standing in the middle of the station, just stood completely still. It was really good as we got people's natural reactions to me just simply standing dressed in an Alice in Wonderland costume. We thought it was a really nice idea as people's expressions as they passed me varried, and worked very well. We had an idea that we could speed everybody up. and still have me just completely still staring at the camera. It showed a sense of Alice's insanity, and how the world outside looked from her point of view. Again this shot related well back to our idea of sense of mystery (Wonderland) as the audience got very involved and connected, wondering what would happen after. When increasing the speed of the shot, we felt that it showed her manic lifestyle and also fitted well as the beat in the song increased.

Production Update

I screenshotted a few various images from our video. This shot was taken from me lying in the rabbit hole. I am holding a cigarette to represent Alice's bad side and her contrasting to the Alice that is portrayed in all the books and films, being very delicate. ''Alice is portrayed as a quaintly logical girl, sometimes even pedantic. It tells of a girl named alice who falls down a rabbit whole into her fantasy world (Wonderland) populated by peculiar, anthropomorphic creatures. this tale plays with logic, giving the story lasting popularity with adults and children. It is considered to be one of the best examples of the literary nonsense genre.''

We played of the idea of 'nonsense' and 'peculiar' and used different ideas to how we could show this. We was originally going to use the idea of different animals, figures and random objects coming alive, but we then decided against this as the animation element was too hard. We did try to use different forms of animation like stock motion and adding in further animation, but we just found that it didn't fit well and didn't really work as it would have just taken too long to have produced, for it to look reasonably good.

This is just a shot of Roger that we have used, just representing the studio that we placed him in for the video. We used this as it would make his role look subtle, but still stand out. We put him in black and white to represent his contained life since he has been going out with 'Alice' as he cannot deal with her behaviour and actions. We focus a lot of our ideas and shots in the video and obviously our main idea of basing it around 'Alice in Wonderland' from a line that is in our chosen song 'Did we take it to far, take it to far, did we chase the rabbit into Wonderland?' this is saying did they take they relationship to far as he has had enough of it all, and using it as a future line and he is basically asking himself will he follow his girlfriend into wonderland and be pressured into her intoxicated life of drug abuse.

Progress Report

Tuesday 1st November

We had a week off last week so we decided too film a party style scene, which consists of me (Alice) and Roger (The rabbit). We wanted too show a scene which was full of dancing and music, everyone dressed in ordinary clothes, but Alice contrasting them wearing her outfit, but undone, which challenges our idea of her urban side, being Alice when she is in her high of life. We wanted to create a scene where Alice was stood in the middle on the table or a higher platform and everyone dancing around her. We thought of a few ways to edit this, maybe have Alice in colour and everyone else black and white, or everyone in slow motion and her in a faster speed showing her going out of control and crazy. We also wanted to film me and Roger together, showing the good times of our 'relationship' and the happiness of us together. In today's lesson we uploaded and looked through all of our footage. We cut some bits together and added them to our video, after watching it a few times some stuff didn't work as well, but the stuff we eventually added we was happy with. We also uploaded some footage that we done 2 weeks ago, which was of someone flicking through playing cards and doing a selection of hand tricks with them. We thought these would work well as extra little shots in our video, filling up small gaps and also adding the effect of magical cards to the video.

Progress Report

There was a big time element in our video. Relating back to the Andrew Goodwin theory, very strongly again, we found that the whole idea of 'Did we take it to far?' 'Did we chase the rabbit into wonderland?' There is this constant battle with time throughout that follows the life of the White Rabbit, when in Lewis Carrol's book, you see him appear at the start of the book, he always sais 'Oh dear, Oh dear, I shall be late!' so it automatically brings this rush to the video. We portrayed this idea through Alice's very split alter-ego personality, showed especially in our shots at the underground station, where she is simply standing still and everyone around her is moving in extreme speed all staring at her and giving her looks, making her feel very vunerable and some what startled. We decided it was a good way to connect the personalitys and the famous aspect of time. We noticed when watching 'Alice in Wonderland' and analyzing it that you can see the stop watch clock on many ocassions, once again relating back to the time element. Where Alice never really see's the White Rabbit in the film, and there is this constant mystery about why is he late? and where is he going? this related well to our music video, focusing on the mystery and fact she just want's to know and see the rabbit. We thought that Roger worked well as a connection to rabbit, with our idea of him as 'Alice's' boyfriend and they are encountering a rough patch, she just want's to see him but he keeps putting it off and sais he never has the time.

Digipak Advert Analysis

Rihanna - Loud

Rihanna’s poster for her newest album ‘Loud’ The main focus of this image is the hair. The bright and vibrant red could stand for lust and the female prominence shown. In the music industry, woman are portrayed as very sexual 'objects' (Relating back to the gaze theory) When the woman are attractive, a lot of the audience become men. The red contrasts with the cream/neutral colours might represent her juxtaposed side, being pure and innocent. This therefore gives you the sense of 'Naughty but nice' again making the male audience a higher competition against the woman, who are more interested in her music. Her portrayed image shows that she uses herself as a symbol, directly trying to promote herself and her music to the audience. Her eye contact is staring at the audience, right through as a sort of 'grab' yielding them in with her looks. Her fiery red hair also makes her stand out, as a powerful and dominant woman. Her name is in bold, white writing which is shown on a black background, contrasting and making it stand out to her audience. The other wording used in the poster is just to inform the audience of the name of her new album. It says 'coming to a city near you, which brings a sense of waiting, as they haven't told you the dates or where, you just have to hope it is near you. The font used looks very elegant and classy, of a thin style. again the contrast against the classy font and the look of Rihanna in the picture plays on the mind almost as if the poster is teasing you. The design and layout of the poster is very straight forward, as it is not needed as she is such an iconic figure. This also could of been made like this as they wouldn't have wanted to overpower her because they wouldn’t of wanted it to overpower the picture. These points that I have made all her.

Progress Report - Planning

- We are planning to record another set of filming of Roger singing on Wednesday 19th October. We thought we had filmed enough, but it turned it at least half of it we ended up discarding. We have written a list of other parts of the song that we want to re-record him singing. We are also planning to film some more on Wednesday too, focusing on the magical side of Alice in Wonderland. We want to film the drug idea, but don't want to make it look like we are encouraging drugs, so we want to hide the idea and use me (Alice) lining up powder and as I go to sniff it, I blow it instead, turning out to be glitter, so it shines all over the camera. We plan to do this in slow motion so you really get to see the sparkly effect. We also plan to film some shots of me kissing the camera. For both of these shot ideas, considering we don't want to get stuff on the camera, we plan to use clear cling film over the lense (We have practiced this to check it doesn't go blurry).

- Today we filmed 'Alice', naturally waking as herself, which we plan to use at the very start of our sequel. We are going to cut and speed up, using Final Cut Express, to follow the opening of the song - as if the lyrics represent her daily routine and just simply waking up. Again connecting to the lyrics themselves 'it was all to stay awake for the longest', and how we have analysed the lyrics. This medium shot of 'Alice' showed her dream style life and how she wakes up and it is still the same and that she cannot escape this life. This allowed us to have a strong focus on her as well as showing the setting, so the audience can get a instant connection between when I am in bed playing 'Alice' and 'Alice' in her 'Wonderland'.

Analysis of a Music Video

Florence and the Machine - Cosmic Love

I choose to analyze this video, as Florence and the machines persona is very magical and enchanting. Where our theme for our video being based on the story book 'Alice in Wonderland' this video was very good for inspiring ideas, to gain the whole supernatural feel for our music video. The video starts of with a flickering lightbulb, in sync with a heartbeat sound. This as the intro already brings large amounts of mystery to the video.

You then see Florence, she is looking in awe and creeping through a forest. There are zoomed shots of her rings, all colourful and bright. There are then a selection of shots that switch from her in the forest/magical land, and in a room full of mirrors. When she is in the room of mirrors, the camera is at a high angle, so you can see her dancing and then all of her reflections in the mirrors around her. Florence portrays a very flowy amount of movement, looking very mezmorized and stunned, which once again relates back to the whole idea of her being mystical.

She talks a lot about 'stars' in her song, and throughout there are lots of fairy lights and light bulbs everywhere that flicker and relate to the whole idea of 'twinkling stars'. There is an extreme close up of the light bulb, that changes fast into an action match of her eyes, that are twinkling and sparkling. Her style of singing is really shown through her video's. As she is really magical and different when she sings, her voice brings a very different approach to music, which is proved by her mix of rock ands soul. Her costumes in the video are also very mystical, but at the same time portray her elegance. The video has a blue hue on it throughout, which gains a cols sort of feeling. ''Blue is the color of the sky and sea. It is often associated with depth and stability. It symbolizes trust, loyalty, wisdom, confidence, intelligence, faith, truth, and heaven. Blue is considered beneficial to the mind and body. It slows human metabolism and produces a calming effect. Blue is strongly associated with tranquility and calmness. In heraldry, blue is used to symbolize piety and sincerity.''

Progress Report

Friday 7th October



Today we tried out animation technique's. We have edited our video up to the line 'Messed up generation' We wanted to fill this space with animation to add interest to the video. We wrote various designs on the board, as we couldn't decide on what to write. We wanted to include the white rabbit, to continue our idea of constantly having it throughout the video. After drawing a variety of ideas we came up with the idea of (Image above) A spiral of the word generation. This slowly spinning would give a hypnotizing effect, of a 'messed' up design, much like the 'messed up generation.' We took over 100 images in a row, adding one letter at a time, putting them together as a stop motion clip.

Progress Report

Today me and Sam worked together to film a test shot of Sam moving about against the green screen, to get an idea of what we are going to film for Roger. We filmed him moving about and singing the song, practicing different long shots and close up's. Throughout this practice lesson, we learnt that when you film you have to make sure that you cannot see the shadow on the green screen. The output of this would be that the shadow shows up black instead of green and will be difficult to convert to a plain colour. We also had to make sure that there was nothing but 'Sam' (will be Roger) in the filming space/frame, as it looks less professional.

We then filmed Roger, singing the whole of the song up against the green screen. We thought that if we done that then it would give us lots of choice of him singing different lines of the song. We got him to do lots of walking around on the green screen just to make it look like he is in a studio.

Once this work was uploaded, we took a shot and tried to sync it with the music, thankfully it worked very well, which we was happy about, as the timing and structure was really well put together.

Progress Report

Monday 26th September

This week to get an idea of the 'Messed up generation' as example quotes, we went up to London and filmed some random train shots and landscapes, just as extra establishing and long shots. We firstly travelled to Camden Market to capture the different varieties of people from different background to use in our film. There is a set style of clothing in parts of Camden market, that consists of a grungey/piercing style wear. We didnt have set shots to film, as it wasn't our main filming we just wanted to see what we could find and film it, filming what we thought was important and needed. We filmed walking around the shops and stools, capturing lots of small decorations and wind chimes, that would be nice to place between shots. We found a kaleidoscope style hang decoration, that was really bright and colourful. We thought it was good to include this into our filming as it showed the twisted/weird world of wonderland. We just panned across this to get an effect of all the bright colours, bringing a great sense of imagination. We found some people that we believed showed todays teenage generation very well, and asked if we could film them standing still and the camera shot just starting at their heads and going down, capturing all of their features and feet. We then re-filmed this but starting at the feet, as it builds tension and makes you want to watch more. We had a good idea that we could stop it at their stomach and then go into another shot, and then later on in the music video show the head shot, full of piercing's. It was really good to get a variety of shots to be edited and played around with.

Progress Report

Monday 3rd October -

Today we decided to film all of our outdoor scenes, considering the weather was really nice, and perfect for our forest shots. We went down to the Belmont woods, and filmed a number of shots of the light breaking through the treas, me as Alice dancing around the woods and on the log. We filmed it from different high and low angles to get different perspective's of the shot, this also meant that we could have a variety of shots to choose from when editing. We spent the whoel day filming as we knew that we had to make the most of the good weather, considering Autumn was nearing, and there was a high chance or alot of rain.

Locations List

- We want too use a variety of locations too keep the audience indulged and not too loose interest.

- We look too set it in a white house which can be used as the entrance too wonderland. The house being white will make all of the bright colours stand out. It will embrace the brightness and make a good colour contrast.

- We like the idea of the edited animation being added too the video, too give it the more imaginitive and mysterious look. E.g filming a standard road sign and having it crossed out with wonderland painted in red paint, that has been spilt all next too the road, happening too cover roses.

-We have to be careful and think logically about the weather, keeping in mind how unpredictable it is, and that it could rain at any point.

-The days that it is hot, we must use this wisely as at this time of year there will not be many, if any, nice days at all.

-If it is to be bad weather we are going to have to make sure we have alternative places to film. For the day's we have planned to film outside, instead of wasting the time, we could postpone filming that and film the stuff we would have planned to film inside on a later date, so no time is lost or wasted.

-Our main set locations are:

The forest, the garden, near a road sign, in the cafe, sitting in flowers/running through the lavender fields and my house.

Analysis Of A Music Video

Strawberry Swing - Coldplay


There is a small amount of connection between the lyrics and visuals and that’s the amount it talks about the sky, and in the video he is travelling through the sky, apart from that there is no connection, much like Coldplay’s other video’s, where even the song titles are completely irrelevant.
There are no intertextual references or voyeuristic treatment of the female body. The camera angles are very different too a normal music video, as infact the camera has been placed on a tripod above the floor and doesn’t move throughout the video. This gains a lot of focus too all the amazing amount of detail that engages you into it. Where the main singer of Coldplay, Chris Martin, is such a famous, iconic figure, he doesn’t need a camera focusing on him constantly throughout the video, so the demands of the record label influencing the video aren’t high as he already gains a lot of fame. This is a major part of the video as it has to look like a dream style world that has been created by the movement of pictures. I don’t know if the pictures are animation or have been individually drawn and all scanned in bit by bit to give more of an effect to the video, but either way the detail is very imaginative and creative. The video has been created on a black board style flooring, with a wide variety of stories being told throughout, through a collection of moving drawings and pictures, drawn by pastels. At the end there is a explosion of colour as Chris Martin gets up of the floor and walks off, shakes a few people’s hands and leaves the set, as if what he has done was so easy, just simply lie on the floor whilst

the editing takes control.

The sound is very relaxed and mellow, which relates to the video’s soft and subtle colouring, and slow drawings, relating to the calmness of the song. We would really like too use a chalk style animation in our music video, too relate too the whole 'Alice In Wonderland' style magical, mysterious theme.

Analysis Of A Music Video

Friendly Fires - Kiss Of Life

The very first shot that you see is land/beach scene with a group of people in the background, out of focus, with instruments. In the focus you can see a plant slowly blowing, as the focus changes into the group of people the song starts. You then see a extreme close up of a man's face singing, he has a white background behind him, which makes him stand out more. Throughout the video you can see switching between this beach style scene and his face singing. I chose too analyse this video as it's much like our chosen video (Example Stay Awake) which consists of 'Example' singing in a white studio, telling a story throughout. We really liked this idea so tried too find video's with a similar effect too give us ideas and inspiration. More so throughout the video you see the main singer of 'Friendly Fires' join in the beach scene, dancing and having fun. It's a very simple, yet effective video, with not much going on in the background just a group playing instruments. This helps too make him stand out, and give a clear definition that he is the lead singer. The mise en scene doesn't tell us much in the video, and the story that is portrayed isn't relevent too the song at all. This adds mystery too the video, which we want too use in our music video, making the viewers interested too watch it and think about the story behind it. All of the members in the group playing instruments, are in very beachy, casual clothing - very bright coloured and flowy, whilst he is in black, again making him stand out over them. They are also wearing very authentic, cultural masks, that bring maybe their traditional culture too the song. They talk thoroughly about the 'Sun, sea and sand' throughout, which implis the use of the beach as the setting. When the song starts too slow down, and it's the instrumental you see a long shot of a sunset, which is a contrast too the video as it has been sunny right up too here, you then see a close up of a mask with the person's eyes open, and then the silouette character of the lead singer dancing. Te lyrics are 'Could you wave goodbye too sun, the sea the stars the wave the tide, the wails inside that life has died, but all you need is a kiss of life' This is sung after the sunset, and then goes back too life as if you have the kiss off life there is always light in your life. All of the editing in the video is very simple, and there is no animation or added effects, you just see the establishing shot at the start of the beach, then a jump cut too the extreme close up of the lead singer's face, and then back too the beach scene where the lead singer is.

Shooting Schedule

- We are planning too begin our filming on Wednesday 21st September. We are starting the filming at my house. We will film the beginning scene as me waking up as Alice and then again waking up as a normal person. We have decided that lots of shots of me will be filmed twice, so then we can view the perspective from Alice, and then again from her as a normal person not in wonderland.

-We will then go on too film throughout the week, looking at the little shots mainly and spending time mostly on them. Even though they are the most simple shots they can sometimes need the most work and concentration.

-We plan too film everything with in the next month as we need the weather conditions too still be sunny-ish. This enables us too get natural daylight which helps too make the video more realistic, before the rainy and snowy seasons begin.

-On the 3rd October, We will go on to filming Alice in the forest and follow her around, filming her in a hole in the ground which represents the 'rabbit hole'.

-On the 5th October, we will go on to practice filming and then filming Roger, singing the song. We are going to film him singing the whole of the song, and then when it comes to editing it we will have lots of him singing, incase we had random spots with nothing to put in, we can just add Roger singing. We also plan to film a selection of shots of Roger, so that we had a variety when it come to editing. We plan to involve simple shots.

-On the 7th October, we plan to go onto the filming of different peoples heads. This is our plan for the 'messed up generation' which will involve us filming different people in a head shot singing, we will then take different facial features from each person and add them all together in a selection and bundle of overlapped shots. We plan to edit animation into this too.

-On the 10th October, we are planning to start our animation and drawing. We have drawn some practice designs - which will be uploaded later.

-On the 14th October, we are going to go back to the forest where we filmed Alice, and film more shots of her entering wonderland and dancing.

-On the 17th October, we have decided that we are going to film shots of me and Roger together and him entering my house, full of white, with lots of animation colour shooting out of the walls, pictures and plants (e.g).

-On the 20th October, we plan to film a selection of shots of me and Roger together, just as our normal selves.

List Of Props

For our props ideas we want too use a variety of stuff that signify the 'Alice in Wonderland' theme. We watched the film twice as a group and noted things that we thought would look good throughout. Where the idea of our video is too mix Wonderland and reality, through the small and simple animation (The recurring white rabbit) we thought that little signs would be better, e.g a road sign that would normally say 'The Crescent' but instead it has changed and it says 'Wonderland' and a man painting a wall red and the paint happens too spill over, onto some white roses. They are just a few example's that we will use.

List Of Props
- Playing Cards
- Keys
- Roses
- Make-up
- Face paint
- Tea Set
- Costumes - Alice in Wonderland