Finale

As a whole the process of making this Pop Video went really well for us as a group. We did take a risk not taking a main stream song and subverting some of Negus's conventions but i think we handled that challenge extremely well and delivered quite a good finale production. We got some good shots, my particular favorites, the Fridge Smashing, The Cigarette Shots, The burning car, The DJ clapping and the Flares (above) Not having a lyrics in our song meant we had much more freedom in what kind of video we wanted to show. We didn’t have to stick to one theme but we could go in any direction possible but we needed to be careful that the audience understood the meaning on the message and what we were trying to say. If there was something I could change about the video, I would probably take out the shots where the gang members cut themselves because no one really understand that we were trying to show that in this chaotic society that they were "Blood brothers", brothers for life, that there is loyalty, respect and trust between the gang members. Instead the audience was just a bit taken aback by this and shocked. Overall, we have had great feedback and some excellent comments and people really enjoyed how our video was different.

Blog Task 3

Audience- What I learnt from my audience feedback


Having collected a variety of feedback for our pop video and ancillary products from members of the target audience and from other audience demographics- via YouTube, Facebook, a Focus Group and questionnaire, and other sources, I looked to answer this question.


We aimed our video mainly at a male target audience aged from 16-25 because of the violence and action within our video. Most of this audience being from lower-class backgrounds who would be seen as CDE in the Jictar scale. It was aimed at youths with rebellious aspirations, who would be able to identify with our cast members, with little education and wealth. Our Focus Group members were, however, according to the Jictar scale in the BCD area, enjoyed and understood the video meaning that our audience could be much larger than we had aimed for.

In this Focus Group we wanted to discover whether our target audience enjoyed and understood the message we were trying to put across, the narrative, the representation of the characters and if they could identify with them, how our video could be improved and even if they liked the song we had chosen.
At the beginning of our Focus Group session we wanted to address some main points and get some specific answers, so we showed the video and handed out this questionnaire:

1) Did you enjoy it? Why?
2) What did you get out of it?
3) What did you think the message of the story was?
4) Did you think the brand was established? How?
5) Do you think it is sexist/bias in any way?
6) Did you identify with any of the characters? How? Who?
7) Did it tell you anything about relationships?
8) Did it give you any information about the world today?
9) What is the official image that you received?
10) How do you think it can be improved?


We then showed the video a second time and after discussed the points which were made and raised some questions were they could give a wider range and answers and really expresses there thoughts, ideas and understanding on the video in this session. We then asked the members if our focus group, four male and four female, to explain there answers to us in depth. We then focused for a bit on the girl to see if they thought that it was sexist in anyway they all replied no and one even added “I think it conforms to the stereotype of typical gangs”. When asked if they had enjoyed the project they all happily said yes saying things such as it was “exiting”, “energetic”, “interesting”, “edgy”. However, when we asked what they did not understand and what could have been changed, almost every single one asked why the gang members cut themselves, when we explained that it was for brother hood “blood brothers” they still thought that that was something which could have been changed or taken out. We knew that using both the questionnaire and the Focus Group we would get the best feedback directly from the audience, sort of like a “belt and braces” technique.

We first put our video on facebook, even though we can not see how many views we have each member of our group has had many good reviews from family, family friends, friends and friends of friends. Every person we have showed our video to or even sent a link to has either sent it on or showed multiple numbers of people themselves. There have also been some very good and encouraging comments. We have also put our video on YouTube and have got 872 views and still growing. We have had comments such as “coming from an artistic background i think you should put this forward in the baftas for best short film, great directing by the way, yours sincerely 8.5/10 nick shannon would love it”.

We had attempted at using Blumler and Katz’s theory on “uses and gratifications” which lists 4 broad needs fulfilled by watching TV.
• The First is Diversion, a form of escape or emotional release from everyday pressures. Our target audience could defiantly see our video as something they could relate to therefore watching it takes them away from pressures of school, university, home, poverty and even difficult social situations.
• The second is Personal Relationships, companionship via TV personalities and characters, and sociability through discussions about TV with other people. Our video is violent, edgy and stereotypical therefore many subjects and debates can be raised about it.
• The third is Personal Identity, the ability to compare one’s life with the characters and situations within programmes and hence explore personal problems and perspectives. No matter from where or what class any audience member we have can also compare their life to the lives of the character’s on screen. We can even identify with the pain, hurt and anger which goes into such rebelliousness and violence.
• The forth is Surveillance, a supply of information about “whats going on” in the world. Everyday there are articles and debates rose about how violent and reckless the young are becoming. This is exactly what our video shows.



Oddly I think ancient philosopher Aristotle can help explain how our pop video works. Our Focus Group did not understand this, but I think that pop videos appeal on the basis of Ethos and Pathos.

I explain these below.

The goal of argumentative writing is to persuade your audience that your ideas are valid, or more valid than someone else’s. The Greek Philosopher Aristotle 2,000 years ago divided the means of persuasion, appeals, into three categorise—Ethos, Pathos, Logos.
• Ethos: (credibility) or ethical appeal, means convincing by the character of the author. We tend to believe people whom we respect. Our video is aimed at a young crowed who may find the characters in our video influential and therefore would respect them in a way because they can relate to them and understand them. Many people at that age are very respectful to anyone in the music industry especially a particular artist or band, they idealize them, the DJ in our video could be see as someone they could look up to.
• Pathos: (emotional) means persuading by appealing to the reader’s or watcher’s emotions. We can look at texts ranging from classic essays to contemporary advertisements to see how pathos, emotional appeals, are used to persuade. Language choice affects the audience’s emotional response, and emotional appeal can effectively be used to enhance an argument. This video plays particularly on the emotion of anger, therefore any audience members who is angry and needs to “let lose” could watch the video and his or hers emotions would connect with those of the video, therefore connecting with the music, the video and the artist.
• Logos: (logical) means persuading by the use of reasoning or speaking/writing. Deductive and inductive reasoning, and discuss what makes an effective, persuasive reason to back up your claims. Giving reasons is the heart of argumentation and cannot be emphasized enough.

Director's Commentary

We did a director’s commentary to explain a little more about our Pop Video as a way of helping our audience to understand the story line and narrative as we found that the members in our Focus Groups were a little confused in areas of the video. In the director’s commentary we explain many shots why they were put in and analyzed them. We also discussed the aims of our Pop Video and the editing. It also allows the audience to know a bit more about the choices we made such as the song.

Blog Task 2

Blog task 2

View more presentations from hurtwoodhousemedia5.

Magazine Advert

To promote our artists’ image and the theme of really grittiness and rebellion, we created a magazine advert which did just that. We wanted to create something that would appeal to our target audience as much as possible. The advert is “dark”, “gritty” however the name, D’Artagnan, connotes something completely different- fighting, justice and freedom. Which in a way our characters do fight, they fight as in physical fight but they also fight to “kick back” from the self fulfilling prophecy, which in a way is freedom.
In this modern day and age the music industry is loosing millions due to illegal downloading on sites such as lime wire and therefore only a digi pack won’t get people to buy your CD when you can get it for free. The way to make money, which at the end of the day is the main aim, even if the artists and his music is not synthetic, is threw sales of the concerts or tours. We needed to make sure that our magazine advert was the most appealing as possible without loosing that individual and rebellious feel to it. Aimed at a target audience aged from 15-25, the layout and whole image is an appealing one. It is also extremely eye catching, the fragmentation of the media texts image, exemplifies the video’s meaning. i.e. how the group within the narrative are broken and lost even though they are trying to rebel and be brave.

Digi Pack

Blog Task 1

In what ways do your media products use, develop or challenge froms and conventions or real media products?

We did a lot of research for our pop video such as finding locations sites. We also watched many of music videos to give us inspiration for the making of our own, there was one in particular which we did imitate a lot, Stress by Justice the music video made by Romain Gavras,t he hole feel and concept of our video really comes from this one. Keith Negus lists the major common generic conventions of a pop music video, which are: • The explicit and unashamed promotion of the artist’s “image” (aesthetic/generic/ideological) as a specific product with a brand identity, ready for mass consumption. • The featuring of the artist (almost without exeption) • A wide and extensive range of shot types, camera angles and movement • Many short shots: high ratio • Repetition of reoccurring thematic elements and generically specific iconography (one key element often being dominant and providing the skeletal structure for the promo) • A possible narrative structure • A possible performance element • The flexibility to disregard Realism! • Shots cut tightly to the beat of the track • Use of special effects (lighting, animation, CGIs) • A carefully constructed Mise en Scene appropriate to the content and tone of the track • High impact instantly! • Discontinuity editing We looked to imitate some of Negus’ conventions of a pop video, such as having a performance element, a wide extensive use of shot types, shots cut tightly to the beat of the track and the featuring of the element or High impact so that we could follow Barthes theory of “plaisir” and “jouissance”. We also subverted some of these conventions such as the use of special effects, the promotion of the artists’s “image” we prefer to have our artist unknown and unseen, which is why when there is the performance element of the pop video our artist covers his face with a hat to make him unidentifiable. We knew from that moment that we wanted to create the same fear and repulsion as the video above had done, this coupled with the sense of disequilibrium we felt was the foundation for a good pop video.One of Keith Negus’ conventions is to use a wide and extensive range of shot types, camera angles and movement . For all the gang shots we used handheld style filming to really get that realisms and grittiness feel to our video. To give our shots a more original feel we used odd angles (as you can see above) , we also used a few slow motions shots to really give our video that impact, “wow” effect. This really took the audience in the heart of the action and video so that they could relate better to the characters. Our does not have an abrupt end but instead of this, the video fades out, leaving the conflict unresolved therefore leaving the audience wanting more. This in is as reflection on modern society because most conflicts of a similar nature are left unresolved, such as knife crime and gang violence.This shot really shows how we were trying to convey the brand of the artist’s image threw the pop video. This burning car shot really shows what lives the gang members live in a day to day basis. One of Negus’ conventions is “high impact”, we conformed to this with this shot because we create a missive build up and chose a part of the song in which the beat of the song builds up to and then we delivered this shot giving our audiences high impact. Everything from the gang scenes was all improvised so instead of following storyboards we used the location to create the film, only filming things that we thought would look god and which the audience would like. However we had intended from the beginning to have the burning car in our video and the flares too.