Blog 20 - Evaluation and feedback

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

The music video is a genre I have explored extensively these last few months. The format most extensively used for this medium is the one that we adopted; a band playing music. However we did not simply conform to the idea that we should film the band playing the song in some surreal environment, as is often the way opted into by labels or video producers.

This is queens of the stone age, performing in an environment completely unheard of in the history of reality. This format presents the band as offworldly, perhaps divine. This can increase the distance between artist and audience, and will create publicity and fame. Our video however, challenges this concept. We wanted teenagers and males of a wide age range to be able to relate to our video. Not to idolize or worship us, as seems to be the intention with this example from QOTSA. We wanted our audience to go "Hey, this looks fun, being in a band and having some fun in a school. Playing loud, singing proud and just letting it all out!". We wanted to seem down to earth, realist. With no budget and just a band at our disposal this looked to be a fun project.

We also developed ideas presented by this genre of music video by shooting each band member individually. While it is a stock-classic rock and roll video, I feel it has a unique feel presented by the fun, humorous attitude adopted by the band members. Throughout the video there is evident enjoyment in the performance. But not in the sense of showboating, as would take place in a gig or in a traditional music video, but actually getting enthusiastic about the song.

Essentially, we took the concept of the traditional, face on, no frills band playing music video and followed it. We followed it for a song we love, with something we love doing. We put our own twist on it and I am proud of it. We had a laugh.

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

All of my products, including my video, stick to the rock theme. Mainly around my guitar, and me. Playing the frontman I embody the song into the same medium it was produced in (a band with a lead singer/guitarist). The whole video is self explanatory, not patronising or being subtly meaningful to the passive audience. We wanted to portray the image of raw, musical fun. This is why we objectified the video into the simple yet effective image of 'guy with guitar'. My advert for example gives an interesting yet simple image that basically says the same thing as the video. My digipack does the same thing, a simple brick wall and limited palette. Simple yet effective. My skills in photoshop have been useful in helping me create superb looking images for all my products.

• What have you learned from your audience feedback?

I have got multiple pieces of feedback for my work. I was told for example to put words on the spine of my digipack. Here is a screenshot of me doing it on photoshop and the finalised image.

The video on youtube had multiple responses, here is a screenshot.

We also did multiple online surveys to find out what people liked about the video, and what people thought needed improvement. The most common problem people had was the acting. So thats my bad. However people thought that it represented the genre well mostly. So thats a positive.
























Finally the comments on facebook, the most public and personal of all feedback sources. We created a group on which to upload the video and all other products that we made.













As you can see, people seemed to like the fact that Ben (the guitarist) was able to enjoy the song and have fun with the improvised performance. This is the reason we included the clip at the end, to give the audience a portion of the laugh we experienced whilst filming it.

People have told me in person that they think it is a great video, the timing is good and cohesive, the subject matter is instantly apparant, the energy of the song is clearly portrayed in the performance given by me and my fellow band members. Overall feedback is good. If I would change anything based on the opinions given by onlookers, I would act more energetically and just generally better. But we worked that out during the editing process anyway.

• How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages of all your products?

Photoshop was a massive tool in my production. I am very literate in the program and therefore utilised this to create images for the entire project. But the thing that was the biggest challenge, as well as the most useful tool, was Final Cut. Neither me or doug had any idea how to use this thing, neither of us had ever even used a mac for more than a couple of minutes. We were both PC guys, and we were thrust into a world of unfamiliarity, with the deadline fast approaching.

We tackled it. We both managed to learn how to use the program quickly and efficiently. Capturing the footage off the camera was simple (besides when the tape was scratched and unusable) and was executed easily and directly. From here on in me and Doug knew what we wanted to achieve. Get the good looking ones, put them on the timeline, arrange accordingly. The unrefined, raw video that we had the vision of came with the careful arrangement of this organised chaos that we found our editing process to be. It was fun, we got to look back at all the things we had recorded and choose from an arsenal of brilliant footage. We agreed on most things. If it was in time with the song and used some kind of creative camera use, we used it. We spent a lot of time in room 20 arranging, cutting, expanding and rearranging those tiny clips around. But I learnt not only how to use a great, modern program, but also the logic behind every piece of media out there. Not only music video's, but television, film, advertising, anything! The editing process is huge, complex, unstable. It is delicate and precise and above all, difficult. It is an art I would love to master, and one of the most empowering and satisfying things I have ever done within the education system.

OVERALL I am extremely proud of my efforts with the video. I think it was a success. I think that we envisioned something and made it happen. The zombies thing failed to materialise, but all the same we created something beautiful. We did not need the sub plot to overcomplicate things and confuse a potential audience with irrelevant nonsense about the undead. Although it would have been cool, the video is fast paced enough as it is. Zombies held no reference to the meaning within the song. My personal interpretation is that the lyrics mean very little, they are just all encompassing words made up in some jam, in a practice room in the bands early days. This is why I believe our video works so well. It does not tie any meaning to anything, make euphemisms or imply hidden lessons of life. It just takes the music, and turns it into something visual. A band, just having fun, playing the song. Practicing in the underbelly of britain hoping to one day make it big. Honesty is a quality many video's seem to lack these days.

I have learnt so much these past few months. This really is an industry I would like to find myself in, media production. It is hands on, practical. What we reaped is what we sewed. I am proud of myself and of Doug. We came through and worked hard and stayed committed and did not get bogged down about the whole thing. I got my band involved in making a video, something I have wanted to do for quite a while now. We learnt how to use a program totally alien to us. We learnt how to use a video camera, one of the most influential and historic inventions of all time to create vision. I am happy with the result. I can watch our video over and over again. Yes, there are blemishes and imperfections that we have learnt from. But we made it, against all odds we rose triumphant and created something to be proud of. We rock.

Blog 19 - Finished Video

This is the finished product, three cheers for hard work payed off!

Blog 17 - Rejected footage

In this shot, extracted from our first filming date (the one where 90% of the footage was busted) not only am I not singing into a microphone, but Jesse, the drummer, is not even playing atall! This was unacceptable to use in our video, and it ended up in this blog.



Despite being new to the technology, Doug proved very competent and disciplined with his camera use. However he did have his slip ups. This, once again, is from the first date of shooting. The idea was to get a fast paced, perfectly timed rhythmic pattern that me and the drummer both followed. However in order to capture this action, my right hand needed to be in the shot. As you can see it is simply my stationary left hand within the composition. The audience would interpret this as confusing perhaps, and would definitely not portray what we wanted whilst designing the footage. The shot went straight out of the question for usage, despite being a cool concept.

Blog 18 - Creative camera use

This is the first shot that we noticed was something special. It goes perfectly in time with the music and you can see the key points of movement in both instrumentalists. The sticks of the drummer and the strumming hand of the guitarist move together with the music to give our video a realistic feel. This in conjunction with the guitarists dancing movements gave us the perfect piece of footage to use for the heavy drop at the start of the song. It works immaculately to give the audience the perception that there is a full band present. This is because the first shot in the video is of me on my own, then a shot of nathan on his own. When this shot of Ben and Jesse introduces us to both of them, it gives the perfect opportunity to open up to the audience the full fury of an entire band shot that comes with the first lyrics. The background in the shot is perfect, the composition and focal point is impeccable. My favourite shot of the entire project.




This is a brilliant piece of camera work by Doug. There is an outburst of energy in the song, when the singer pretty much just bellows down the microphone. While miming the song the entire band (including myself) matched up this energy with erratic movement and passionate instrumentality. But what makes this shot great is the fact that in that one second of primal, exploding volume, Doug took the focus off of me, and then straight back on me. This gives the video a surrealism and energy that I did not think was possible through videography alone. A great asset to the video, it ups the 'ARGH' factor alot, which is what we need to create the kind of video we wanted and appeal to our target audience.

Storyboard and animatic

These are the storyboards designed for the filming of our video. They follow the simple narrative of band shots. Despite the need for a storyboard, our filming schedule is to be relatively improvised. We have the plan to film every band member individually, in order to obtain close ups and profile shots ect. After we have finished doing this against the backdrop of amplifiers and speakers etc we will set up a shot of the entire group. These storyboards were drawn up by Doug under my supervision, and act as a basic outline for shooting, although there is not a lot we can follow too closely. We are simply going to have to edit properly to give the shots rapidity and a fast paced attitude in time with the music.

Blog 16 - Advert

This is the advert I have made to promote my video. It is an image of me playing the guitar. I have photoshopped it heavily to give it a dreamy, god like feel. The colours are fairly dull, once again not offering challenge or high contrast to scare viewers away. The colour I chose for the header is from the mould on the bricks growing in the left of the image. This is a subtle highlight of the picture, and sticks the image down to a single palette.


This is the advert Queens of the stone age has previously published to promote a concert. Clearly appealing to a male audience, supporting mulveys theory of the male gaze, it brandishes women as objects of desire. This goes with the rock 'n' roll theme presented by the black clothing, medieval font, dark palette and the dominant, central image of the skull. This skull also stares into the audience, drawing them in and passing the view directly and discreetly to the text. The women also help to draw the attention of the primary audience (Males aged 14-40). As used in my advert, the text is a unique colour. There is also a central image to draw attention. The text is also positioned at the very top and very bottom of the screen. This poster portrays a lot more information than my one, as it specifies a date and other information. However this is an advert for a two date tour in europe. It is written to be understood by multiple nationalities. Mine is made to promote the video.

Blog 15 - Digipack

This is the link to my finished digipack, with feedback from my friends after it was published on facebook.



This is the inside of my digipack, once again following the theme of raw rock music, focussing on the instrument of guitar.

What is a digipack? It is a digital versatile disk (DVD) enclosed in a case used to promote and mediate a band or other media entity. My digipack is designed to be an item for dedicated fans to buy and watch. It will be comprised of live performances, hence the picture of the guitar. This also gives the impression of good, honestly produced music from a grungey band. The colours and composition of the front cover are definitely satisfactory. I spent a lot of time on photoshop perfecting the image, and alot of time finding the correct font to use. However once these tasks had been overcome it was actually a very quick process creating it. I put the tracklist against the right side of the back cover to provide some variety from usual digipacks. The 3 colour scheme works well (black, blue, white) to create a striking, yet subtle image. This would appeal for the fact it does not jump out too suddenly at the audience, challenging the eyes and scaring potential consumers away. It looks calming, tranquil, with connotations of rock music upheld by the object of the image.

The inside of the digipack I am not so proud of. It upholds the theme of guitar, and I spent ages photoshopping it to make it look acceptable. The words above and below the disk slot are words from the song that we made the video for. The image is of me, playing a different guitar to the one on the outside, giving variety and a sense of mystery to the entire thing.

Blog 14 - Shooting diaries

We filmed on the 15th and 22nd of march. The first date was a complete scuff, the tape being scratched and unreadable by the cassette player. Although we captured a lot of good footage, we did not let this hold us back. We arranged to film next week, and we were aware of how we could make it all better. This first week of shooting gave us a lot of problems. We were not sure how to arrange everyone, there was disagreements within the group. While I personally was starring in the video, I could not have as much impact on the cinematography as I may have liked to. While I filmed close ups of other members of the band, most of the shots we did had to be of the entire group playing together. This meant Doug had to film the majority of it. Although he was creative and committed in his camera use, he seemed to be unaware of many points of composition and focal points. A lot of the time he turned it to manual focus, and did not know how to turn it back to auto focus, so much of the footage that managed to make it through to editing was completely out of focus. Altogether though, we all learned from our mistakes and the second date was made much better by this fact.

The second date was a roaring success. Me and Doug implicated discipline in the band, capturing about an hour and a halfs footage in the three hours shooting time we had. We did close ups of everyone by the backdrop, rapidly moving the set and instruments around to fit the shot. There was also an energy in the band, and enthusiasm in the camera angles that was not apparent in the previous week. I consider myself and the group extremely lucky that it was the first tape that was unreadable and not the one from this week. We only had the footage from the 22nd, and this gave us very limited options during the editing process. However we pulled through, and it all came out looking very satisfactory. I am proud of both my performance as a mime and instrumentalist as well as Doug's skill with a video camera.

Blog 13 - Shooting schedule

We shot our video across 2 3 hour periods.
The first date was the 15th of march. A tuesday. This is when my band normally does band practice anyway, so it was basically the same process me and the other three band members would take anyway. The only thing that changed was the fact that we brought along a camera to film the action. Unfortunately the tape for this date was scratched and dirty, and would not recapture onto Final Cut.

The second date was a week later, the 22nd of march 2011. We had a fresh tape and a new set of ideas. This shooting went well. The entirety of our footage is sourced from this date.

Blog 12 - Health and safety

We have not got a lot of health and safety implications to worry about while filming this video. It takes place in a school music classroom, a building designed to be made safe for underage people to play music in. The one danger we have is the backdrop, a large stack of sound equipment. If this were to fall then it would crush Jesse, the drummer. To ensure safety surrounding this situation, we had to stack up the equipment properly. We put larger speakers and amps at the bottom of the pile, with PA's and percussion instruments at the top. This minimised the risk of injury, and also provided a pyramidal, good shape for the background to be. Besides this there was no real worries or risks that threatened the health or safety of the crew or participants for the video that were apparent at the time. Looking back in retrospect the whole thing was executed safely and precautiously.

Blog 10 - Mise En Scene

We have decided that instead of the band doing a live performance, we are going to film it as if it is a band practicing for a gig, and the video takes place as a kind of "behind closed doors" sneak preview. This means that sets and costumes are going to be fairly casual. We want the audience to think "Oh that looks fun, being in a teenage band playing rock and roll music". However this does not take away the entire task of creating mise-en-scene for the audience to digest. We need it to look loud, we need it to look energetic, emotional and heartfelt.

This was achieved in our video shoot by stacking up amplifiers, speakers and PA's as a backdrop. This gives the image of a genuine performance/rehearsal as well as providing an energetic image, volume wise. This coincides with the genre of the song to create a good looking set. Unfortunately the only place we could film was in a school classroom. This is justified in my digipak and advert by calling the place "Panic room" although the video is intended to just look like a practice for a youth music band.

The clothing we wore was not particularly generic. I wore the same clothing throughout the shoot. I looked quite smart and cleaned up, which contrasts with the content of the video. Everyone else wore the same clothes throughout, except for Jesse, the drummer. He changed jumper but we could not hide this fact through editing alone. Overall the backdrop worked well. Initially we filmed each band member individually, to get close ups while maintaining a decent background. Then we placed the drums in front of it and had the whole band get close to each other to keep in shot. This worked well, creating the image of a room-wide background as opposed to the real thing that only stood about 5ft wide and 6ft tall. We also did not have the same combination of amplifiers and other sound equipment stacked up on our second day of shooting, but this is barely noticeable in the video.

This whole collaboration of ideas that materialized will heavily influence the favour that a possible target audience would have for our video. This is males aged 14-30. These guys are going to be aware of the music production process. The raw, male dominated rock band scene that takes place in dimly lit rooms, comprised of people who know how to have a laugh, dress normally to practice, play loud and mosh!