Gareth - Evaluation

Media Evaluation

Our chosen song by the filaments falls into ‘Ska Punk’, which is a genre of music which generally uses music video that challenges many conventions. Seeing as this would be hard to create a different feel for this kind of song, we decided to stick to the ‘Ska Punk’ conventions throughout our video, which portrayed rebellious teens, which have a strong bond together, but no care for others. But in doing this, we clearly have made our music video go against conventional videos, and how most products attempt to be seen, which means are target audience will be niche.

You can see from our video just our actions aren’t conventional for normal music videos, but i feel it fits perfectly with the characteristics of ‘Ska Punk’. We tried to stick to this firstly in image, and secondly in persona, which I feel again we have manage to successfully portray. In addition to breaking and following these conventions, we also tried to develop them when inputting our own touch of humour into the video, generally Ska Punk is controversial, but taken seriously by the artists, which is where we thought we could add our own twist and work on the rebellious group theme. We thought portraying the group as inseparable would be better for the viewer as this would be easier to relate to, and bring a more humorous side to the group, and again i feel we have done this well, without fading too far off the original set characteristics of Ska Punk.

Other than the video, we thought it would work best in trying to stick to Conventions when coming to the layout of the Magazine and DVD Covers. But the images used are anything but conventional, we’ve managed again to put out own feel the them, which I believe that you can relate to and feel throughout all 3 of the ancillary products, continuing our humour/group bond throughout. You can see this when it comes to the magazine cover, we decided to rein act the famous photo of ‘Yoko Ono + John Lennon’, which we have done without mocking the photo, but bringing our feel of humour to the product.



I feel the combination works great. We’ve managed to successfully portray the Ska Punk conventions, with our own twist of developing this with humour, throughout the video, and the continued onto the magazine and DVD with our own touches, like the copy of ‘John Lennon + Yoko Ono’ which brings a real effect when looking at our pieces, along with continuity. I really like our design on the DVD we have created, we had many ideas at first, but eventually fell upon an idea of using a photo within a photo. You can see from the product, we firstly took a shot of Rojiar holding a camera phone, with our two figures in the background, we then removed the phone, and took the exact same shot. This ment when we came to editing, using photoshop we could apply the second image, onto the first image, which we did in place of the Camera Phones screen. The bonus of doing it this way is it brings better clarity to the picture, along with the wanted fading effects in the background, which we all think works really well. Ontop of this we thought it would be nice to get snaphots of out-takes, or unseen footage we had we came from either footage we planned to use, or luckily stumbled upon. I think this is a great back for our DVD, seeing as most of the photos are from extra un-used footage, it shows how much we really put in this, and again enforces the bond we have as a group.




Gladly we’ve had very little negative feedback, most people seemed to appreciate the work we have put into the three products and feel the bond throughout. The main correlation with our feedback was to do with our editing to the beat, and how it brings our video together, if you look throughout, using final cut we have manage to cut scene on specific beats, or use the footage and actions in it to flow with the song. In addition most agreed that we have followed the Ska Punk conventions successfully, for example we show the rebellious side when spray painting, or breaking the window (we had permission to do), not only this but our strong bond and image that we’re in it together, we can be brought out in the group scenes when lip syncing to ‘the BPC’. Others seemed to feel we have input this into our products well.

The main negative comment to our video was to do with the lip syncing. As you can see ‘B.P.C’ is an upbeat song, which from our perspective made it hard to follow, you can see from the rough cut that we have edited many scenes of our lip syncing, to try to keep the pace to our video which i feel we have transformed well, but in addition to this we’ve pulled some attention away from this by creating so many short other shots that stop you waiting for the next, and keep the viewer watching and waiting for the humorous side of the group, which again pulls the attention away from the lip syncing.


Our main use would have been the Apple Computers and the multiple useful applications that come with them, like Photoshop and Final Cut. Both of these have proved useful when coming to the editing side of out Magazine and DVD. We came across many problems during these processes, which both Final Cut and Photoshop combined were used to sort, like the layering effects for both products, you can easily select and move specific things around the two with no hassle. Again with Final Cut, the ability to cut and choose footage helped significantly, for example we would have bulk scenes of 5-15minutes, and this allowed us to use a tool to cut and drag the wanted footage down onto the sequence. Secondly there’s the internet, where we gained access to our blog, which in turn helped us manage to keep on top of deadline set, and stick to our main targets without fading off course.




In conclusion, I am overall really happy with our 3 products and wouldn’t change a thing about them, we have managed to successfully portray the image wanted throughout, which I personally didn’t think would have been possible at the beginning, due to our resources. Along with this I didn’t think we could perform the multiple stunts, for example the naked run, which was just a fantasy in my eyes. I feel we have also stuck well to our original plans, only adding ideas, rather than swaying off from our ultimate goal, which I believe to have had an impact on the final result showing are persistence and belief in what we wanted from our final product. Moreover we have really shown with our commitment and dedication to our products, mainly our Music Video, obviously by some of the stunts we performed like jumping into the river, or running half naked through the high street, we have gone to large lengths to get our footage, and ultimately, it’s paid off.

Magazine advert ideas.

When planning the image for our magazine advert, choosing an image that reflected the artist's was the most important thing to consider. The image I have chosen from our music video is about half way through, and shows the main 'artist's'/actor's in the music video. The artist's are represented as youthful, rebellious boys; they have careless attitudes and enjoy having fun. The image I have chosen shows the artist's in that way. Firstly the setting compliments the image; broken windows, the B.P.C logo in graffiti and generally the area of the image is not a typical area to be in, if they were law abiding youths. They're doing a dance/pose, this reflects their humorous selves.

It links to our video because it is following the theme of 'messing around' and having an enjoyable time with your friends. The artist's continue this sort of attitude throughout the music video, but I think this image reflects them in the most boisterous way.

The genre of music by The Filaments is ska/punk. The characteristics of ska punk often features fast tempos, guitar distortion, on beat punk-style interludes and shouted vocals. The fast beat tempo is reflected in our music video by the shots being very quick. The image I have chosen was from one of the many fast shots. The way ska/punk artist's usually present themselves is in the attitude reflected by the artist's in the music video. "Punk rock is meant to be our freedom. We're meant to be able to do what we want to do." - quotation describing punk beliefs.

The audience we have aimed our music video at is adults that enjoy this genre of music, mainly men. The track contains explicit language and behavior that isn't positively looked at for younger audiences to view. This image will appeal to the target audience because listeners of ska/punk embrace the amusing culture.

Feedback

- Liked the short pace of our clips, costumes and the random elements in our video.
- The group suggested that we use a 'man thong' image of the two running for our Digi pack. Or the three posing against the graffiti background.
- Thought the lip syncing could have been better, agreed that it was hard to do and thought we managed to successfully divert attention towards our other clips.

Final Video

Final idea for magazine cover

We've decided that we're going to stick with the idea of the John Lennon and Yoko Ono on the bed in our man thongs and gold masks.

What needs to go on the magazine cover

Photograph to cover page

Star ratings and reviews from well known magazines

Out when(date)

Myspace of band

Where to buy from ( logo of itunes, amazon etc)

Record label logo, website

Name of artist and song

Date of shooting- monday 23rd nov

Digipak ideas

Magazine advert

Needs to promote video and artist

Magazine

Name of artist

Name of album (featuring the track BPC)

Release date

Available from

Websites/myspace

Record Label

Reviews and ratings

DVD

Showcase the artist

Collectors item

Limited edition

Features-Out-takes, Documentary, making of, live, bonus tracks, uncut version, short films featuring artist, photographs

Rating-parental advise

Tuesday 10th

We've uploaded our footage, and made a good start into the editing of our video. The clips we got seem to fit really well, creating a better feel to the video that really grabs the viewers attention with lots of short effective shots. Overall we are happy with our progress.

Monday 9th

We've filmed our final footage, and we feel it went quite successfully. We managed to get the clips that we needed, including footage that grasps other groups feedback.

Magazine Advert Research

For our Magazine Cover we've decided to stick with the man thong idea but mix it in with a famous image. The shot will be on a bed or carpet with Liam laying on the floor and callum laying next to him curled up with his body wrapped around him whilst kissing him on the cheek. We'll be wearing the gold masks and man thongs that we sported rather well in the Music video. The genereal Idea of the shoot is to re-create the John Lennon and Yoko Ono famous image from the cover of Rolling Stone magazine



The lighting in the original photo is quite dark and grainy but we're thinking of making it a brighter photo to help represent the way we want our video to be seen.

Analysis of Peer Feedback

Overall we're pretty happy with the feedback to our Rough-Cut, We have taken into account the criticisms and plan to change them with our upcoming footage E.g Shaking Moo, and other extended shots that dampen the fast pace to our piece.

Shots we plan to change:
- 00:09, Garage walk (too long)
- 00:20, Rojiar verse 1 lip sync
- 00:23, Gareth verse1 lip sync
- 00:55, Liam verse 2 lip sync
- 1:07, 'BPC' (too long, put in close-ups)
- 1:31, Cut down Slow-mo Boxing (Rojiar)
- 1:48, Take out 2nd wheelie bin shot
- 1:59, Edit ShakinMoo Dance Scene

Video Roughcut

After Half Term

Plans for After Half-Term:
- Gareth lip sync Verse 1
- Liam lip sync Verse 2
- 'Hey Hey Hey'
- More dancing scenes
- Ass Slap
- Reaction shots
- Slap round face with bag of flour
- Fruit throw
- Mini Mosh-pit
- More Random Footage

Production meeting

Shooting - Monday 12th:

Walking down from garages
Performance (verse 1)
Wheelie bin
Exercise balls
River jump

Thursday 15th:

Naked run
Dance with shakin moo
Boxing
Performance verse 3
Hey hey hey's


Equipment:

Camera
Tripod
G-clamp
Car
I-pod and speakers


Actors:

Liam - Man thong run, Man thong river jump, Performance, Exercise balls, Boxing, Dance
Callum - Man thong run, Man thong river jump, Performance, Exercise balls, Boxing, Dance
Rojiar - Performance, Exercise and Boxing victim
Gareth - Performance, Exercise Ball, Boxing
Shakin Moo - Gets bullied, Dance
There may also be a couple of random actors to perform Reaction shots.

Contacting The Filaments

Hello, we're four Media students representing Long Road Sixth Form College in Cambridge, UK.

For our coursework this year we've been asked to create a music video, we've chosen your song - B.P.C.

We hope that you'll be happy with us using it; and we'll be sure to send you the final video and welcome any feedback or thoughts on what we've produced.

Thanks very much.

More Inspiration

Goodwin's Points

To help us in our decision making process, and with the concept of our music video, here are Goodwins points.

1) Music videos demonstrate genre characteristics (e.g. stage performance in metal video, dance routine for boy/girl band).

2)There is a relationship between lyrics and visuals (either illustrative, amplifying, contradicting).

3)There is a relationship between music and visuals (either illustrative, amplifying, contradicting).

4)The demands of the record label will include the need for lots of close ups of the artist and the artist may develop motifs which recur across their work (a visual style).

5)There is frequently reference to notion of looking (screens within screens, telescopes, etc) and particularly voyeuristic treatment of the female body.

6)There is often intertextual reference (to films, tv programmes, other music videos etc).

Lyrics

Lyrics to B.P.C. :


Benfleet punx crew is the name of the firm so dear to me.
You'll see them on the cider
and keeping it real out on the street.
We like to drink with them and sing with them
thats how its always been.
We spent our teenage years like a punk rock family.

Through all the party nights and pissed up fights, - Callum
a lot of shit went down
But we always stand together, we're unified and proud. - Liam
Back to those early gigs we were kids, - Gazza
but we knew how it had to be
The beenfleet punx and chelmsford crew in solidarity. - Gazza

Hey!
Hey!
Hey!
The B.P.C.!(x3) - Callum

Hey!
Hey!
Hey!

Done down on southend seafront, a DIY gig.
The BPC gathers and they're busting out the drink
there gonna have a beer and have a laugh
thats what its all about.
And then it's back to Benfleet
the hometown have no doubt. - Callum + Liam

Hanging out on street corners
where its punx against the pricks.
nothing can confront us when musics in the mix
Nothing could be better than when I'm drinking with my friends.
BPC this one's for you united to the end.

Hey!
Hey!
Hey!
The B.P.C.!(x3) - Whole Group

Hey!
Hey!
Hey!

Hey!
Hey!
Hey!
The B.P.C.!(x3) All

Hey!
Hey!
Hey!

Location

These are the several locations we are going to film, most are going to be areas of our groups performance which is around some graffitied garages to fit are groups image. The final picture is where we plan to film the 'Manthong Run', it shows are camera positions and the street itself which is Fitzroy St. by the Grafton Centre.

Mood Board

As you can see the moodboard shows the variety of ideas we have for our Music Video. Firstly theres the Manthong and the screenshot of Blink182's 'Whats my age again', this is linked with our inspiration of from there video to run through Cambridge in Manthongs which will be a main focus of are video, being shown during the songs verses. There are also several other props which we are going to use for pranks throughout the video, for example there are boxing gloves, which we're simply going to hit each other with. Finally we have a picture of the River Cam, this is going to be the main focus of our final shot as the 'Manthong' idea continues, we plan to film a shot of us jumping into the river then peoples reactions, for our fade-out.

Props and Budget

Man Thongs x2 - £5.99
Masks x2 - £3.99
Wheelie Bin - £0
Exercise ball - £12
Boxing gloves - £5
Melon x2
Sledge Hammer
Small fruit - £5
Cricket bat
Dressing gown
KFC
Car

This is all our props needed, which we've valued at £42.