Media language

Media Language:

Media language means the way in which a text is constructed to create meaning for a reader or viewer of the text. All media texts are constructed, someone has made decisions about how they should be constructed so then the form matches the content and with a particular audience in mind.

A few Examples:

• Lighting
• Costumes
• Makeup

What we will do in our Music video:

In my partners and I music video we intend to keep everything simplistic, therefore we will have simple hair and little makeup, we intend to keep the skin very natural and make it glow. We believe this we be the best idea as it will enhance our characters natural beauty, and will put across a statement that you do not need a lot of makeup to look beautiful. We will keep the costumes simple as well so it allows the audience to focus more on the dancing and the characters instead of what they are wearing.   

Lighting

Lighting:

In my group we collected some research to find our favourite lighting techniques and what we are most likely to use in our music video. We decided that our favourite lighting was low key, as we think it adds mystery and suspense to a video. Low key lighting creates shadows and is often used in horror films, so lighting has become a convention of those genres (horror). An example that we found for low key lighting was "1975
Somebody Else" music video and an example that it is used in film is in "Harry potter".

Here are some examples that i took for low lighting. 

In my group we came to agreement that in our music video we are most likely to use back lighting throughout as well as other lighting techniques.
We thought that back lighting will work best with our music video, as it can create silhouettes of the characters and can add shadows and depth to the scene. Back lighting is the process of illuminating the character/subject form the back. Back lighting can be both natural or artificial light however I think that in our music video we will use artificial light, therefore we can have more control over it.  

An example for back lighting in a film is "kong skull island" and a music video example is "MNEK, Don't call this love".
 




Here are some examples that i took for back lighting. 

Story Board

A story board help: Creativity
                              : Be organised
                                  : Visual
                                  : Plan

Story Board - Draft 1

 

 

 

 

Song choice

Lyrics: Dua Lipa 'New Rules'

 

One, one, one

 

Talkin' in my sleep at night
Makin' myself crazy
(Out of my mind, out of my mind)
Wrote it down and read it out
Hopin' it would save me
(Too many times, too many times)
Oh, he makes me feel like nobody else
Nobody else
But my love, he doesn't love me
So I tell myself, I tell myself

 

One, don't pick up the phone
You know he's only calling 'cause he's drunk and alone
Two, don't let him in
You have to kick him out again
Three, don't be his friend
You know you're gonna wake up in his bed in the morning
And if you're under him
You ain't getting over him

 

I've got new rules, I count 'em
I've got new rules, I count 'em
I've gotta tell them to myself
I've got new rules, I count 'em
I've gotta tell them to myself

 

I keep pushin' forwards
But he keeps pullin' me backwards
(Nowhere to turn, no way)
(Nowhere to turn, no)
Now I'm standing back from it
I finally see the pattern
(I never learn, I never learn)
But my love, he doesn't loves me
So I tell myself, I tell myself
I do, I do, I do

 

One, don't pick up the phone
You know he's only calling 'cause he's drunk and alone
Two, don't let him in
You have to kick him out again
Three, don't be his friend
You know you're gonna wake up in his bed in the morning
And if you're under him
You ain't getting over him

 

I've got new rules, I count 'em
I've got new rules, I count 'em
I've gotta tell them to myself
I've got new rules, I count 'em
I've gotta tell them to myself

 

Practice makes perfect
I'm still tryna' learn it by heart
Eat, sleep, and breathe it
Rehearse and repeat it 'cause I (I, I, I)

 

One, don't pick up the phone
You know he's only calling 'cause he's drunk and alone
Two, don't let him in
You have to kick him out again
Three, don't be his friend
You know you're gonna wake up in his bed in the morning
And if you're under him
You ain't getting over him

 

I've got new rules, I count 'em
I've got new rules, I count 'em
I've gotta tell them to myself
I've got new rules, I count 'em (baby you know I count 'em)
I've gotta tell them to myself
Don't let him in, don't let him in
Don't be his friend, don't be his friend
Don't let him in, don't let him in
Don't be his friend, don't be his friend
You ain't getting over him

Narrative

What is Narrative ?

Narrative is the media term for story telling. Narrative is the way the different elements in a story are organised to make  meaningful story's. Narrative is also defined by its many codes, conventions, signs, symbols, and icons within a text. All media texts have a constructed narrative that can be deconstructed and understood by the audience in different ways.

Our Narrative:   

Our music video is about a list of new rules to get over a former boyfriend. In the music video the friends will come together to help her  get over him as well as stopping her go back to him. To represent this we will have 3 dancers in a row and the guy trying to reach her however the dancers will block him and prevent him getting to her.

Pitch feedback

Audience feedback:

After presenting our pitch to our fellow peers, we then asked what they liked abut our idea and perhaps what we could change and what they thought would not work. Overall they all said it was a good idea however it appealed more to the women then to the male, due to our music video is about women coming together to over come something. They said that warm and colour lights was a great idea and will work really well with our theme/ music video. They also believed the black and white flash backs is a good idea as it breaks everything up, and it is a good contrast between the warm bright colours. Therefore after doing our pitch we got a good feel of what is good and no one said anything negative all that it did not really appeal to males.

So we then found out  that our target audience was females between 13-18 years of age.   

Here is a image of Macy who our music video appealed most too.
She said " I really like the song choice and I think it will work with the ideas you have come up with, I love the bright lighting and that it involves dancing , overall I think it is a great idea, and will watch the music video when the product is finished. "

pitch

Pitch:

For our pitch we presented our idea to our fellow peers, to get an idea of who our main audience would be and if they think our ideas are good . For our music video we have decided to choose the song "New Rules- Dua Lipa" which they majority said they liked and heard off. It was at tis point we knew that our song choice appealed mostly to females and not males.

During our pitch we  presented a PowerPoint of Moadboards and inspiration pages so the audience could get a better idea of what we meant so it helped put it into perspective for them, and we believe this really helped. Overall our pitch went well and we got some good feedback from it.

Media power point from Amy Davis


By pitching our idea to our peers it meant that we could receive feedback on our music video idea, to get a rough idea of who it would appeal too. 

what codes and conventions we will use

When getting our characters to lip sync in our video we will make sure that the lip syncing itself is very over dramatic therefore by doing this it makes it look more realistic. As well as this we shall make sure that our editing on the beat is consistent and matches up perfectly. 

Codes and Conventions:

Codes are simply a system of signs that creates meaning and conventions  are the generally accepted ways of doing something, Codes and conventions are used together in any study of genre
 Therefore the codes and conventions we will use in our music video is editing on the beat and also lip syncing, as these are the typically codes and conventions of most music videos.

  

Dancers:

For my dancers I will have them create a strong dance piece, involving strong poses, to represent women in a strong and powerful way. As this is what my music video is based around showing women in a good light, in a powerful way. An example being Katy perry roar. For my dancers I will also have then dance in front of a coloured light. I got some of my inspiration again from Katy perry a lot of her music video's are bright and colourful.  
   

I also got inspiration from Brandon flowers - lonely town due to the colourful lighting. 

Any one being Lorde - green light, throughout the music video there is colourful lighting. 

lip syncing

lip syncing:

 

Here we have someone mimicking the drums. We decided to practice this as it my be useful in or music video, if we film the band playing as we will need it to be realistic and match each beat.

 

 

 

Again here we have someone playing the guitar again mimicking the song that is being  played in the background. As in a music video if we choose to film someone doing this we will need it to look realistic, other wise the movements and the beats will not line up.

 

 

 

 

And  finally we have someone lip syncing, if we choose to do this will need it to be perfect other wise it will not line up and will be out of sync. The key to good lip syncing is to over exaggerate each lyric.

 

 

 

 

 

Media theorists

Roland Barthes:

Barthes suggested there would be more than one of five codes that describes the meaning of a text, therefore he suggested texts maybe 'open' or 'closed'. He meant that the text is a big ball of string and needs to be unravelled
Open texts - are those that are open to interpretation and can have many different subjective meanings that are individual to the audience/viewers.
Closed texts - These are products that are produced with a singe , having a meaning in mind.

Levi Strauss: Binary opposition

• Man vs. machine  is just one of the binary oppositions that Levi-Strauss identifies.
• They offer powerful levels of meaning with in a text and can summarise a theme of a film/product
• He highlights that several appositions can be presented in a media text.

Other examples of Binary oppositions:

• Good vs. Evil
• Male vs. female
• Dark vs. light

Vladimir Propp:

Propp was a Russian theorist who studied fairy tales and folklore. He also identified plot elements (31 genetic functions in total).He then developed this into an 8 spheres of action narrative theory. The most easily understood application of this model can be applied to the film star wars.

Having a Narrative will help me to create a strong piece.

Andrew Goodwin

Andrew Goodwin:

Andrew Goodwin explains his theory by six different conventions within a music video.

1. A relationship between the lyrics and also the visuals , which illustrate , amplify or contradict the lyrics.
2. There is a relationship between the music and visuals , which also illustrate , amplify or contradict the music.
3. Genre - Related style and iconography present within a music video.
4. Multiple close-ups of the main artist or vocalist to promote the brand image.
5. Voyeurism often plays a big part, particularly in relation to females.
6. Intertexual references to other media texts, may be present , especially in humorous videos.   

Thought beats:

This being the structure, speed and beat of the song are represented visually- For example through variations in chorus and verse footage or cut to the beat. An example being a song with a fast past/ tempo with have a number of faster cuts between each shots. Thought beats being the structure work of his theory.
CREATIVE: screen shots


By understanding Andrew Goodwin's theory , it will help me create a professional piece

Here are a few screenshots of my music video where I have edited on the beat. 

A choice of song

Change of song:

My partner and I have decided to change our song from 'Lorde-Greenlight' to the 'New Rules - Dua Lipa'. We have decided to change the song as we think that the ideas we have will go better with this song. Although we have changed our song we will still use inspiration from that song in our music video, with the different colour lighting. We also think that this song will appeal more to our audience.


We also preferred this song as it represents women coming together to help their fried get over a former boyfriend. 

Therefore in our music video we intend to represent this , and show women as strong individuals. 

why a music video?

 Music Video or Short film:

My partner and I have decided that for our practical work we will create a music video. We came to this decision as both of us are not very aware of many short films however both my partner and I have seen and watched a lot of music videos. Therefore we thought that this would be the best and most beneficial decision to make. Short films do not appeal to me or my demographic so I aim to produce a product which is aimed at females aged 14-25.

Music video ideas:

My groups initial creative ideas gained from initial research =

• Back lighting
• Blue lighting
• Dancers
• Close ups
• Slow motion
• Orange lighting

My partner and I have decided to choose the song  "Lorde-Greenlight". We decided this song as we thought it would fit the ideas that we have nicely , as well as both my partner and I being a fan of the song and artist.

 



Research

3 screen shots of analysing pre-existing videos

AS Media coursework review

Link to old blog :

https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3977062539826783839#allposts/src=sidebar

Overview:

When starting AS Media I had little knowledge of the different techniques used for all 3 different areas, sound editing and camera. However this made me more curious and intrigued to learn all the knowledge and the ways, I could use the techniques to my advantage.

The workshops from last year especially helped me to produce my successful final task "OBLIVION". 

Throughout As Media me and my partner produced 2 practical tasks and as the course went along, I believe that each task improved dramatically by me adding new knowledge and techniques to each piece of work.

Influences for AS media -Final task:

For my final task, we had many influences all having a main character as a strong, powerful and independent women. My partner and I felt that our main influence was from the film "LUCY" .

Technology used:

To edit our tasks we typically used Premiere pro, however this software often crashed and broke due to being a old bit of software therefore my partner and I had to work round this problem.

 Overall I believe that my AS Media work was successful and I look forward to create more work like this in my A2 Media course work.

Time management: 


Technology:
ICT:
Creativity:
Analysis:

Introduction

Introduction:

Hello I'm Amy and welcome to my A2 media blog.Carrying on the course after finishing AS , here is where i will post all my research and planning for my music video, as well as posting the final product. I thoroughly enjoyed  Media last year, therefore i look forward to what is to come this year.