Planning Our Video - Plot

During the planning for our video we decided that we wanted to mainly focus on our narrative for the video and present it in an artistic way to match with the ambient style of our chosen song. The image on the right is the artwork for the song we are using (Boca-J - Lost In Tokyo); we decided to use this image alone for our inspiration on what the storyline could feature. Using the character in the image wearing the mask and the title of the song; we decided that a story based on 'Mankind and Pollution' would work well. The title being "Lost In Tokyo" helped us to come up with a vision of a group of teenagers discovering a location full of nature and peace, then they decide to mistreat it with pollution just as mankind does with cities all over the world. After disturbing the peace of the nature, they soon return to their home city, only to soon discover that they miss the serenity of nature but know that if they return it'll only become abused once again since that is simply the way of man. 

We decided this plot would work well, and that we should film it in black and white too match the song's artwork image also. We even created a protagonist for our narrative and decided we should also base his character on the song's artwork image, so I opted to be the protagonist for our video and for mise en scene, I did my best to find a gas mask and make my outfit look similar to the outfit of the character from the artwork. After working on the idea for the narrative of our story, I set out to find locations for where this could be filmed and found the most conveniently named location known to many people as "Paradise", it sits right beside the river cam and is filled with plenty of trees and few animals. The reason this seemed perfect to me is because I wanted Nature itself to represent a sort of Paradise within our video in contrast with our urban landscape which would represent a sort of nightmare in comparison to Paradise. For the urban location, I decided the city centre itself would be perfect for filming, places such as The Grafton Centre hold certain gritty aspects that I thought would be best to capture for our video. After we had planned this altogether as a group, I sought out to meet Boca-J himself and ask him what his opinions on our narrative were, and whether he could suggest anything to improve on it, but in the end he agreed that this could turn out to be the perfect video for his song and seemed to be very similar to how he envisioned his own story for this track. So after receiving both Boca-J's approval and the rest of the groups approval I realized that this story could develop into something successful and meaningful, yet also challenge mainstream music video conventions at the same time.

  

Josh Flowers Evaluation Questions

Question 1 Presentation - Josh Flowers

Question 2 Presentation - Josh Flowers

Question 4 Presentation - Josh Flowers

Evaluation Question 3 Video

 Q3: What have you learned from your audience feedback?

To answer this question, we had to create a short audio vox pop featuring people who had already seen our video; this included members from our own group, friends, other students etc. When interviewing each guest, we asked them a range of questions and recorded their answers. These questions included:

• What are your views on the Mise en Scene within our music video?
• Does our video follow mainstream conventions?
• How do you feel about the editing in our music video?
• Does the Mise en Scene fit with our music video and the song itself?
• Which one of our post production methods worked best and why?
• Do you think the black and white effect works well within our music video?
• What do you like best about the camera work?

We got very mixed answer from different individuals, below is the video that features our music video with the vox pop audio recording playing over the top so that you can hear both the questions asked, the answers given and also which guest gave which response.

Q1 In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Q1 Media Conventions

Conventions

Conventions of a media product such as a film, video or music track can include the general categories of its type of genre and style.

For example a film in the thriller genre may use the conventions of voyeurism, distorted sounds, montages, lightning strikes at night and dark, gloomy and shadowy locations.

In music such as hip hop videos, there can be the conventions of success, life, following dreams and getting what they want is a common example in modern hip hop. In music it is also the beats and sounds which give its theme/ genre.

Conventions of our video: Boca J – Lost in Tokyo

Black and white: This is the most obvious convention that our audience will view as the whole video is in black and white. We have used this effect because we thought that the filter would be interesting to the audience, as it will provide a theme/ message of depression and adolescence, all the characters being teenagers, who in common go through their phases.

Emotion: Emotion was one of our intended conventions to portray in our video so that the target audience of teenagers to young adults. To enable the audience to bond and understand emotion within our video, we have used a black and white filter, like mentioned earlier, a life without colour.

Nature: This is one shot to show the convention of nature and how humans treat it. In our video we have this mysterious character following the other teenagers, watching their actions and trying to protect the nature. I think that this relates to the advertisement I have produced by having elements of nature and urbanisation with imagery of trees.

A screenshot showing diggers clearing this area, as there are no plants where they are working, therefore the result of destroying trees and plants. This screen

One of the characters breaking a stick in slow motion onto a tree. This shows the carelessness of the character as well as the emotions given off. To shoot this we wanted to use a mid shot to show the action as well as the emotions of the character as he is intending to break something. The action is viewed in slow motion so that we can see the impact and detail of the stick breaking and pieces flying everywhere.

Urbanisation: In our video we have elements of nature and how it is treated. There is a similar pattern of use in urban environments as well. We have used urban environments because it is now where people populate the most, therefore providing a contrast of locations however reflectiveness on how they are treated.

I think that some areas such as the one in the image below can help to reflect how humans treat their environments because this area is dirty and has graffiti over its surface, which doesn’t seem like intended artwork.

Emotion: In our video we wanted to provide emotion so that our audience can relate, understand and even relate to our video and the music track. Particular emotions we wanted to provide were that of teenagers and young adults during the stages of

Adolescence.

In this image below, is of the mysterious character, behind help behind a fence as there is construction site in work. I think that this particular close shot of the character and the sign is a convention of emotion as we have an over the shoulder view of the character reading the sign. The main words we can see are, “Warning” and “Keep out”. I think that the fence can represent a sense and feeling of being trapped and caged by society and the words to represent the thoughts of the characters could be an ideal way of realising how the characters are feeling.

In this image the character is blowing out smoke at the audience to block their view, so that they can mind their own business type of attitude.

This shot shows the character blowing out smoke in slow motion and it is then reversed to give an out of the world illusion effect. This small segment of this clip can show emotion as they are slowly exhaled and then they come back.

This screenshot could show the convention of emotion. I think this because the character is stepping into the mud, could signify being stuck in the mud, with what’s on their minds, how they are feeling and that nothing is progressing and getting better.

Q2: How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

http://prezi.com/w1ybniguytuz/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy&rc=ex0share

Feedback for first cut

After the completion of our first cut I asked some people of similar ages of our group members as they are the targeted age of the track, their opinions and feedback of the first cut.

What did you think of the mise en scene?

- I thought that the mise en scene was very different to the music videos I see on television because it doesn't have lyrics and the characters seem like they are upset and even depressed at times.

- I think that the mise en scene fitted rather well with the sound track, as it doesn't have lyrics, yet the actions of the character help to create and show the emotions released by from the song.

- The mise en scene created a very unusual style and message as it was a consistency of characters walking through woods and are breaking sticks and smoking, seems like it is trying to convey teenage and young adult issues.

- It is a very interesting mise en scene as the audience can have different views on the video as well as the soundtrack, the characters enable to give a certain and direct message of anger and sadness.

Are there any particular camera shots you think worked well?

- I liked the panning shot of the river and trees, which helped to create a sense of a peaceful environment, giving a contrast of feelings such as peacefulness, anger and, depression.

- I like the close up of the characters as it introduces the characters and enables for more clarity of them for the audience, to say these are the characters in the video.

- I liked the slow motion of when one of the characters breaks a stick against the tree as you can view the small pieces flying everywhere. I think that this shot shows more in depth of this characters choice of aiding his anger, by damaging other trees.

- I liked the long and high shots of the character walking, as it creates a diverse shot for the video of where the mise en scene is located, however the image is slightly limited as there are branches and leaves int the way which also looks good, providing a sense of rare glimpses of the mysterious character.

What specific editing do you think worked well?

- The cutting of the video is good as it provided immediate imagery of the location and the characters, however it is too consistent, I think that fades could be used for the environment and characters to bridge.

- The way the cutting fits in with the drop of the beat works well, creating the full impact of the drop. I think that in the areas of the track where the beat stutter, there could be multiple images going back and fourth like a split second montage/ glitch effect.

- I liked how the cuts enable for the varying shots to be viewed and then cutting to relevant yet strange shots such as characters appearing from no where, however drawback can include, that there are limiting shots.

- I liked the way the video has been structured in an organized way as the characters and locations work well together, as the editing provides many cuts and shots of the video.

Evaluation of our rough cut

Evaluation of our rough cut

I think that our rough cut so far is a good starting point for our final cut as; we have created our intended style of video, which includes the various shots of different camera angles and the mise en scene in those shots, to create one piece when it comes together.

I think that the rough cut is a good first piece, however slightly limited with the variations of shots, as the video isn’t a full two minutes.  I think to meet these we will obviously have to come up with new shots which could include new locations and leading to potential new shots.

in comparison to Andrew Goodwin's key points:

Thought Beats: even though the music within the video has no lyrics, some vocal sounds I think that the audience could pick this sound as to be unique as the sound stands our from the consistent beats of the track. As the track has no lyrics I think that the story and message we have created will fit into with the track so that the audience may have a specific feel/ emotion towards the video and track.

Narrative and Performance: to make our video more interesting and appealing, our characters are going to be acting as depressed/ confused characters, however with their actions their emotions look realistic.

The star image of our video will be the ghost. Simply because of his mask and his attempt to influence peace within the video. The ghost stands out from the other characters because of their similar clothing and student/ teen behaviour.

Illustrate, Amplify, Disjuncture: certain imagery within the video to create messages are the various shots of the teenagers wondering through the forest. Every shot includes a shot of forest, trees, leaves, mud and water which signifies nature itself. The individual character signifies the positive side towards how nature is treated.

Areas where the song may be completely ignored is when we see the ghost interacting with the teenagers. Here it makes us wonder what is going to happen between them.

We have many examples of meanings being repeated throughout our video, the main examples being the teenagers doing what they want, especially to nature without their care/ interest.

Technical Aspects:  which help to create our theme for our video includes the camerawork, mise en scene, editing, post production and cutting.
The camerawork used within our video is at normal speeds and some of them in slow and reverse motion. We wanted to give our video elements of fast speeds, using immediate cuts to show glitch like movement.

Black and white lighting is used through the whole length of the video, to provide a slightly depressed mood as to engage the audience with the emotions of the teenagers. We think that using black and white colours because it is supposed to reflect the depressing moments of teen hood, as the characters are i and nature environments trying to get away from their problems by being with their friends and letting their anger out on unnecessary actions.

In the rough cut we have connections with the beats and the shots. Some examples can include a shot appearing as soon as a beat is hit, the shot is a close up of the ghost as he opens his eyes on the beat.

Post production Techniques

Post production techniques are done for when the filming of the video has been completed and then ready to be uploaded and edited for a full, edited and rendered final cut.

Once we had finished filming the different and required shots as we had filmed several times to extend our video length, we began to add and to edit the shots together, forming the different shots and transitions so that it can correspond with the beats and sounds of the track, creating mise en scene.

Specific techniques we have decided to use are the obvious black and white colors grading for the whole length of the clip, to create a more emotional theme to the song, which could decrease some of the dynamics of the characters, however I think that it encourages the audience to concentrate more on the video. During the years of 1940 and 1966 a black and white film had received the Academy Award for Best Art Direction, therefore I think that this will enable a different and unique approach to the visuals.

To edit and create our video we used Adobe Premier Pro CS6, which is one of the most common and up to date software used to develop visual productions.

The editing of the video consists of sharp cuts, instantly changing the shots for different areas, transitioning to provide glitch/ abstract movements and cutting to and back between different shots providing a same time happening of the story as well as mise en scene of multiple characters.

For the sound of the video we have not altered the track itself  because is it not our own produce to play with, therefore in order to promote the video as well as the music band, the music should be left alone and  our group having the responsibility of creating and developing a video for their track.

The post production of the final cut also requires the evaluation from the individual group members, therefore my own feedback is:
                                                                                                                                       

Promo image analysis 

50 cent - Street King Immortal (2013) album cover

Props: 

The props used in the image consists of Curtis wearing his ordinary clothing of a fitted black t shirt with his black Yankees cap to enable his audience to easily signify him. This shows his persona of him being powerful. 

Female Chauvinist Pigs: Women and the Rise of Raunch Culture

How women are represented

Ariel Levy:

Ariel Levy is a writer at the New Yorker magazine and is known for her famous published book- Female Chauvinist Pigs: Women and the Rise of Raunch Culture. The book critiques women in America objectified in sexualized highly to objectify another and are encouraged to objectify them as well. This is what Levy refers to as Raunch culture.

Her views/ messages on women may be understandable in music videos are they are meant to give certain messages to their audiences and people could agree/ disagree with Levy’s or the artists own views.

Iggy Azalea – Work 

Iggy Azalea is a singer/ artist and model from Australia, Mullumbimby. She moves to the United States at the age of sixteen in Miami, Florida. Iggy’s first recognition was on her two songs Two Times and Pu**y going viral on YouTube.

One of Iggy’s recent and very popular song ‘Work’ can have relevance’s to Levy’s message to the world of how women represent and objectify themselves.

How do Levy’s views be related to Iggy Azalea’s physicality and message?

Physicality of Iggy in her video changes through the story of her video. This can be during the beginning of her video as she is walking down a dirt road in expensive, stylish and revealing clothing. However the clothing she is wearing is described in Levy’s blog on her website with the short shorts and a small top, however I do not think that this is objectifying Iggy as Raunchy as it looks like a desert location, therefore being a hot environment and her costume looks like the modern fashion style for females who are in a modeling/ artist/ actress professions around the world and therefore may influence women in a wide age range category.

During the mid and end parts of this video Iggy seems to purposely represent and reveal more of her body to the audience according to the story of her video as well as showing off. Therefore I think that at this point Levy could be right with how women like to reveal themselves and pleasure men as Iggy begins to lap dance for a man character.  

In conclusion to the physicality of Iggy I think that the video should also be viewed from the perspective of Iggy’s story and what she is trying to tell her audience. As the song it is about what she has been through and how she’s made it to where she is now, therefore she may have done what is included in the video.

I think that in the lyrics of her video she may be relating to Levy’s point at some parts. As Iggy talks about ‘Valley girls’ committing adultery for valuable possessions, when she says, ‘What do you call that, head over heels.’ She is also referring to when women feel love/ passion when they are in love and could be a stereotype for certain females. There are certain shots which show off Iggy’s physical appearance such as her wearing tight and revealing clothes, there are camera angles to show certain aspects of her body.

Iggy also seems to be showing dominance by the way she is alone through most of the video, doing her own things and making it towards her dreams, as she is accompanied by two friends as they steal a car from a man and drive into Hollywood making to her dreams. The way she walks when she is alone, during the first parts of the video, she has her own style, with confidence, straight posture with large strides. Once she arrives she repeats this model walk along the signature floor.