Evaluation Question 4 (Preliminary)

How did you use Media Technologies in the Construction and Research, Planning and Evaluating Stage?

 We used multiple different media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluating stage.
Firstly in the research stage we used mainly laptops/computers and the internet (specifically youtube and google images). We used this to firstly listen to the son and learn the lyrics, this was to try and spark an idea that could link to the song and its lyrics. We also used youtube to watch various other music videos from the same genre as the dafter dance so that we got a realistic idea of what real media products similar to ours looked like. We also used the internet to research possible areas in Norwich that we could use to create our media product.
For the planning stage we all used the internet and laptops to finalise research our locations. We also used phones to contact our actors and arrange filming times. We also used cameras to take photos of our final locations once we had been to see them.
In the construction stage we used video cameras to film our actual film along with memory cards to store our footage on. We also used tripods to stabilise the cameras and we used a drone and a go pro for some alternative shots. Whilst we were filming we were also still using computers and the internet to do regular blog posts about our filming. We then used adobe premiere pro on computers to edit all of our footage and to create our final media product. Furthermore we used a camera to take various potential photos for our cd cover and then used adobe photoshop to edit our chosen photo to create our cd cover.
During the evaluation stage we used laptops and computer sand the internet (in particular blogger) to continue with our blog posts and answer the evaluation questions.

Evaluation Question 3 (Preliminary)

What Have You Learnt From Your Audience Feedback?

We received audience feedback from multiple students who we played or music video to. 

The main thing we received in terms of feedback was that once the main character had transported to the different planet there wasn't much clear direction in terms of what was happening. Another big piece of feedback we received was that certain shots lasted too long.
From the audience feedback me and my group have learnt that my shots should be much more varied to ensure that shots aren't to long and don't get boring for the audience. We would also need to include more camera techniques, such as whip pans, to make it more interesting. Also we would need to make sure there was more of a clear narrative to the video to ensure the audience didn't get confused. This would give the video more direction and story. We could do this by re filming the second half of the video and giving clear indications to the audience as to what is happening rather than just jumbled clips of people running around. We could also potentially try to link the music video to the lyrics of the song more as some people couldn't see the link between the lyrics and the video even though we did try to base the music video around a couple of key lyrics from the song.

Evaluation Question 2 (Preliminary)

How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary text (CD cover)?

We feel that our CD cover links very well to our video as it shares the same name as our song for the music video. Not only this, but we chose to use a picture of our actor in costume with the tent used in the music video. This obviously directly links the two products to each other.

We also chose to use text that was not necessarily formal-looking; more child-like and fun. This is quite an effective link as we imagine that the whole album would follow suit with the sound of The Safety Dance - this sound being upbeat and lighthearted. Therefore, it makes sense that the album cover be just as fun and bright. We matched the text colour to the colours used frequently in the video and the costume; for example, red. This also went some way to effectively linking the two products.

Having said this, in retrospect, it may be more effective to create a more subtle link between the final product and the album cover. Often on album covers the cover may not necessarily be linked at all to any of the music videos made for the songs. Take for example The Smiths' 'The Queen Is Dead' album cover:

While the title 'The Queen is Dead' is also the title of a song on the album, the visuals themselves have no relation to the content of the album or its music videos. Despite this, the album cover still seems to work brilliantly alongside the content of the album. In some ways, this subtlety could be a far more effective link than the directness of our own album cover.

Next time around, perhaps exploring the art of subtlety might be a better approach, whilst still maintaining the fun and childishness of our original attempt.

Evaluation Question 1 (Preliminary)

In what ways does your media product use develop or challenge the forms and conventions of real media products?

In most real media products a child is presented as vulnerable, naïve and ignorant to the real world; a classic example would be Kevin from Home Alone. Our music video really takes advantage of and enhances this view. We use a lot of close ups to show the emotions on his face whether he's confused or scared. Also the fact that his emotions are really exaggerated and clear to see means that the audience is able to connect with the character more than others. For the first minute or so the shots are relatively close up making the viewer feel as if they are part of this characters journey, this is also done with the video transitions when there is a change of location. All these techniques are to present the child as innocent and free. Another convention we used was the representation of a child's imagination which is normally portrayed as illogical and sometimes weird. This shown in the middle section where the footage is chopped up and out of order almost representing this stat of mind. 

In the last section of the video an adult figure is introduced and this character completely takes control of the scene. We use high camera angles and a tilt shot to show this character's authority and charge over the other characters. This is also symbolised by his suit and he is normal centre of shot. The fact that he grabs power and is a representation of the real world, this character is able to bring him back to reality.

CD Cover (Preliminary)

Final Cut (Preliminary)

Images During Filming (Preliminary)

Day 1 -

Day 1 consisted of filming the start of the music video. This meant the majority of the house shots (inside and out).

Day 2 -

During this day of filming, we shot the ending scene (first picture), and then headed out into Wreningham forest to film the main body of the video. For this we brought along a few extras. In the picture below is Jasper on the far left (in our group) and then Caitlin, Tom and Katy. We also employed the help of Nick who lent us his drone to film a few shots.

Day 3 -

Here we filmed the ending of the main body. After being unable to get all of our extras together, we had to change the ending and get Jasper to be in it. Jasper posed as the king of the imaginary land. We filmed at the fort at the Lizard in Wymondham. 

1 Minute First Draft (Preliminary)

Editing - Transitions (Preliminary)

A key part of our music video is where the main character transports to another location so Rachael spent some time trying out various techniques of making this transition possible. The first one is a dissolve and directional blur. Rachael felt it did not quite have the flow we were looking for as the shots were filmed on separate days so the composition is slightly different. The second is a cross-zoom. Rachael preferred this one as it hides the cut between the two days better. This will be used in the final cut.

Casting Ideas (Preliminary)

To cast our main character (a young boy dressed as a superhero), we all had a very clear idea of the type of actor we wanted. We wanted someone who was very cheeky and confident who could carry this over to the camera. We very soon found two candidates who we thought fit this criteria well. These two candidates are:

Toby Cooke - We felt Toby would be a good actor to cast as he is naturally cheeky and confident and up for anything. He has an interest in going into media and has experience in front of cameras as he partakes in windsurfing competitions. Toby is in Year 9.

Reef Allen - We approached Reef on recommendation from our teacher. We were told he was very cheeky and confident around those he knew, however, when speaking to him he seemed shy and reluctant. Reef is in Year 7.

Shooting Schedule (Preliminary)

Day 1 - Tuesday 5th July
 We will shoot all the inside and garden footage at Rachael's house for the first 45 seconds of the video. All three of us will be there and these shots are only of Toby so we do not need any extras.

Day 2 - Tuesday 12th July
This is for the main part of the music video and will be shot at Longs Wood in Wreningham. We have arranged for a drone to help film some shots and for 3 extras to join us.

Day 3 - Thursday 21st July
We will be filming the finale to the music video and any extra shots we need. For this, we have managed to get 4 extras as well as Toby.

Final Plot Ideas (Preliminary)

This is our final plot idea:

• The main character (a young boy) puts on his superhero mask and runs into his garden to get into his tent/den.
• The tent then transports him into another woodland world in which there will be others all dancing.
• In the middle of all the dancing and partying in the new forest the young boy will trip up/fall over in some way and as he hits the floor he will be transported back to his garden and outside the tent/den. 
• The boy will then realise he's back home and may be greeted by his mother asking wheres he been (that scene will be dependant on availability of actors).

We tried to keep our idea as simplistic as possible, this was to ensure that we didn't over complicate the meaning of the video which is simply just about the young boy enjoying himself in his own imagination when he has the safety of his superhero costume on.

Plot Ideas (Preliminary)

We spent a lot of time debating and brainstorming ideas for our music video. From the start we knew we wanted to bring in some element of dance due to the nature of the song and obviously its title. Our basic premise is a young boy is playing in his den before he gets transported to another world. Here he meets various people dancing as he explores this new world. From here we developed and expanded our idea. For example, we decided we wanted the young boy to be dressed as a superhero: using 'the safety dance' as a means of protecting himself from evil. We also decided we wanted the den to be in a garden whilst the new world will be a forest and various locations within it. What happens and where the young boy goes in this new world is still being finalised. Some of the ideas for this section are as follows:

• He enters the new world and finds a party in a clearing and joins in, eventually being hit by confetti/party poppers/paint which cause him to fall and be transported back to reality;
• He enters the new world and meets people of the new world along his way that act like guides to him, eventually leading him to the king of the land before landing back home;
• He enters the new world and meets new people with whom he plays hide and seek with and parties and dances with before landing home.

We feel our start and ending are finalised. The start is as follows;

• The young boy dressed up stands in the doorway of his house before running out to the bottom of his garden to his den/tent.
• Here he begins playing before noticing a different exit to usual in his tent. He crawls through and finds himself in another world.

Our ending will be something along the lines of;

• The young boy will be hit by confetti/party poppers/paint which turn out to be very powerful in this new world, causing him to fall over. We will use this as the transition from the new world to reality.
• The boy wakes us back at home either in his tent, or in the middle of the garden with his den in the background.

Lyrics of the Song (Preliminary)

When looking at the lyrics, we were immediately drawn to some verses in particular. They seemed to suggest the idea of another world. We ran with this idea and allowed it to guide our concept. For example;

Say, we can go where we want to
A place where they will never find
And we can act like we come from out of this world
Leave the real one far behind

The song is very upbeat and fast paced and naturally this encouraged us to want to create a positive music video that will be fun and easy to watch. The line, "and we can act like we come from out of this world", led us to look into a fantasy concept. While the line, "the night is young and so am I", has encouraged us to think about perhaps casting a child. The rest of the lyrics are as follows;


We can dance if we want to
We can leave your friends behind
'Cause your friends don't dance and if they don't dance
Well, they're no friends of mine

Say, we can go where we want to
A place where they will never find
And we can act like we come from out of this world
Leave the real one far behind

And we can dance
Or sing!

We can go when we want to
The night is young and so am I
And we can dress real neat from our hats to our feet
And surprise 'em with the victory cry

Say, we can act if we want to
If we don't, nobody will
And you can act real rude and totally removed
And I can act like an imbecile

And say, we can dance, we can dance
Everything's out of control
We can dance, we can dance
They're doing it from pole to pole
We can dance, we can dance
Everybody look at your hands
We can dance, we can dance
Everybody's taking the chance
Safety dance
Oh well, the safety dance
Ah yes, the safety dance

We can dance if we want to
We've got all your life and mine
As long as we abuse it, never gonna lose it
Everything'll work out right

I say, we can dance if we want to
We can leave your friends behind
Because your friends don't dance and if they don't dance
Well, they're no friends of mine

I say, we can dance, we can dance
Everything's out of control
We can dance, we can dance
We're doing it from pole to pole
We can dance, we can dance
Everybody look at your hands
We can dance, we can dance
Everybody's taking the chance

Oh well, the safety dance
Ah yes, the safety dance
Oh well, the safety dance

Location Scout (Preliminary)

Once we came up with our idea we started discussing possible locations to film that fitted with the story and were accessible for us to film. Today I went on a location scout to Longs wood, which is in my local area to see if it would be suitable for our music video.
As well as woods there's also some open fields and areas which would be useful if we can get a drone for some aerial shots; this will also offer a bit more diversity to the close up angles that we can film in the more wooded areas and on the small trails. 
There are some different sites within the wood like the stairs, bridge and some ponds which we could use to capture more interesting shots and make it seem like there's a few different locations. 
As it had rained over the previous days the paths were very muddy and waterlogged so we will have to consider the weather when creating our shooting schedule.

Roles Within the Group (Preliminary)

Within my group (Jasper, Rachael and I) we will all be doing slightly different roles to spread out the workload and work to all of our strengths.

Filming - All three of use will be there for the filming and help to film and direct the whole video.
Editing - Rachael will do the majority of the editing as she is the best at it and will do this role most effectively, however, we will all have input into how it is edited.
CD Cover - Jasper and I will create the CD cover whilst Rachael is in the editing process. This is because I have spent many years doing art at school and have experience creating and designing. Jasper also has many ideas for the CD cover and considers himself to be creative and computer-savvy.
Blog Posts - All three of us will contribute to the blog posts, however, when all the footage has been captured Jasper and I will do most of the posts to allow Rachael to focus on the editing.
Casting - All three of us will be involved in casting to ensure we all agree we have the best suited people to feature in our video.

Format of Video (Preliminary)

Our video will be in the form of a narrative. There won't be any live performance involved in the video or clips of the song being sung. This is because the song is a very upbeat song and so we felt it would be more effective to have a very full of energy, story-based narrative to accompany the song rather than break up the video between narrative and performance. Also, the fact that we had a very solid idea that we all agreed with and very much liked meant that we wanted to put that idea into full effect. We feel our idea is engaging enough to not need any live performance to accompany it.

Research (Preliminary)

A quick check on Wikipedia told me that Men Without Hats fall into the new wave/synthpop genre. With that in mind I chose some songs from bands of a similar genre that I enjoy:

Tears for Fears - Head Over Heels:

For the most part I can understand the plot of this video; the guy wants the girl and the girl just isn't interested. However, there are some aspects that I don't understand, for example, why is there a monkey in the library? Why are peculiar effects used like the keyboard flying in? I think the video definitely holds attention.

The Cure - Lullaby:

I feel this is a very easy to understand video as it really brings the lyrics to life; these lyrics being the bedtime tale of the spider man. It is definitely an interesting video that easily holds attention and plays to the idea of strange dreams. The only really confusing parts are the shots of the lead singer trapped in a web in the corner of the room whilst he is also in bed.

Echo and the Bunnymen - The Killing Moon

For such an interesting song I was quite disappointed with the video. I could not make sense of it and it was very repetitive (the same shots used over and over with perhaps some changes to colour). It definitely does not do the song justice. I do feel, however, that their use of colour fit with the tone/mood of the song.

Song Choice (Preliminary)

Our group decided to use a song by Men Without Hats entitled 'The Safety Dance'.

We decided to use this song as immediately we were coming up with concepts for the video. The song is very upbeat and lighthearted, making it easy for us to come up with something fitting to go along with it. We also thought the lyrics were good for story-telling. Lines such as; "we can go where we want to" and "we can act like we come from another world", really tell a strong narrative that will go a long way to helping us come up with the narrative for the music video.

Task (Preliminary)

In preparation for A2 coursework we have been given a task to complete over the next month to produce an original music video, as well as an accompanying original CD cover for the release of the song. I will be working with Jasper and Rachel for this project.

We had 3 songs to choose from;

• Of Monsters and Men - Little Talks

• Miley Cyrus - Party in the USA

• Men Without Hats - The Safety Dance

We were also provided with some stimuli in order to aid our thinking for the video;

• 'Carrots help you see in the dark'.
• 'Day at the seaside'.