Post Break Up Sex

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WnJbBHo_xD0&context=C3904608ADOEgsToPDskJRY5gqYf1qUo1X2al3B3mE

Directors Commentary

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8JJLkdS6vC8&context=C33e0306ADOEgsToPDskIUCOY7DDN9rFJWDhOkLttB

This is the director’s commentary explaining how we used different effects and how we made sure that we kept to the relation of the indie genre. This is an audio track over the music video and is recording by the director Caitlin O’shea.

Behind The Scenes Video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aglIF_Aa6j4&context=C3f16072ADOEgsToPDskIoW-sN_MOaTRq9u_GTwLpM

This is a behind the scenes video of the making of the film. We have added certain moments in the film including an interview with Producer and Editor ‘Jacob Perry-Gardner’ who talks about his personal experiences when filming the production.

Audience Feedback - Kane Allen

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZwaqJ5Rszlw&feature=related


This is just one of the visual feedbacks that we receive after the public watched our music video. This is Kane Allen who has agreed to be filmed for feedback on his thoughts of the music production.

Problem with the blog

We have had difficulties in uploading the videos that contain the audience feedback, directors commentary, behind the scenes video and the production itself. In this case we have resorted to uploading onto you tube where the web address will be placed in the appropriate boxes. Simply clink on the hyperlink to take you to the video. We apologise for any problems this caused.

Audience Feedback - Bethany Tillburn

This is just one of the visual feedbacks that we receive after the public watched our music video. This is Bethany Tillburn who has agreed to be filmed for feedback on his thoughts of the music production.

Evaluation – Question 4

4. How do you use media technologies in the construction, research, planning and evaluation stages?

To film the production itself we used the CANON LEGRIA FS306 HD camera recorder. This allowed us to film in HD quality without the heavy load in weight. These cameras were standard issue that was assigned to every student group when going out of college campus to film. These were handled with the utmost care when used. We attached the camera to a MEGAX MX-475 tripod which, when recording, gave us stability and the ability to shoot from different angles and heights with the adjustable head and legs. The rotation of the head also allowed us to perform Panning shots, such as the shot of Ellie and Archie which pans from the bed to the open door of the main protagonist as he walks in. For the staging shot of Caitlin and one of the extra actors Douglas Sweeney we used the Crane equipment that allowed us to perform the ‘tilt’ shot.

We took two shots with this equipment, which fade together, as the character of Doug appears to have left her during the night before. After the footage was taken we uploaded all the footage (unedited at this stage) using a BELKIN card reader to upload the footage onto the Mac computers in order to edit using the Final Cut Pro software.

We used the Final Cut Pro editing software to assemble the final piece of our coursework. We also used the software to create the ‘Directors Commentary’ and the ‘Behind the Scenes video’, shown in other blog posts. The use of Final Cut Pro allowed our editor (Jacob Perry-Gardner) to use different effects for the final production, including the ‘bad film effect’, which gave our music video a vintage look, a style which is an effective technique used in most indie productions. Using this software was key to the entire production, giving us the opportunity too place certain effects in certain parts of the video such as the increase in contrast for the scene that occurs directly after our main protagonist appears to have taken drugs. The software also

allowed us to overlap footage and add a faded, transparent effect. This was used mostly on the footage of the band rather then the original footage of the houses, which allowed us to create the feel of a professional music video that jumped back and forth from the band members playing the song itself to the journey of our protagonist as he moves from each room, witnessing each event of the morning after the night before.

Shooting the studio band footage, we used a JVC. HO with studio kit attached. These high tech cameras were perfect for recording the band footage. Using four of these camera shooting at the same time we were able to have three sets of footage jumping back and forth from different angles, giving use the ability to show all band memebers and thier instruments.

Evaluation- Question 3

3. What have you learned from you audience feedback?

We decided to make a group on face book and add a range of people to allow them to comment on our video and digi pack. After editing our video with the shots we have taken from the filming, we did have some feedback from a teacher suggesting we maybe add some performance shots. We took this feedback into the consideration and at least tried it, to show that we were open to suggestions and it actually worked really well so we incorporated the shots into our video. This also helped us to gain more experience with the technology offered to us which was good. We also felt that gaining opinions from our friends in the face book group could be seen as quite biased so we felt another way to gain feed back would be to print off a questionnaire we have made and give it peers in our class that aren't close friends so the feedback would of been more honest, we maybe could of sent them our anonymously but this would of been a lot of hassle we didn't need so close to the deadline. Looking at these comments they aren't really very appropriate or help full at all but underneath there has been a positive comment made one of the actors. We have have positive feedback from our peers when we've shown them which probably could of been recorded but due to the looming deadline we didn't have enough time. As stated before we handed out 3/4 questionnaires on asking people to rate the video out of 10 and answer some short questions so it didn't bombard them.We have also added the video to Youtube so we could get a wider audience and maybe people from around the world could comment. 'MagnumOpusUK' has commented on our video and said that we 'Did the song justice' and there are some really 'Engaging Angles' which we all have agreed with, for instance this is a high angle shot focusing on an actor passed out the floor, and in the background there is someones hand holding a beer can. We also felt that shots such as the close up of the guitar at the end really make the video as they were filmed with high end cameras and make the video look a professional. This comment has made us see that we have some good shots and this means if any of us take media up as a career, or to university, we can take some of these skills with us. Looking at one feedback from they have also commented on the camera work and directing, they have also stated that they disliked some of the acting in the video as they didn't feel the actors suited some of the roles and they have also stated they think we could of improved our costume choice and the lip syncing of some of our actors. We feel the lip syncing could be improved some what also, this could be down to some the editing or the singers, but the editing was rated a 9 out of 10. We are very pleased that the feedbacker has said the video looks like it was made for the actual band which we are pleased with. It has a homemade look just the original, which we were aiming for.

Evaluation- Question 2

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

Throughout our CD case, magazine advert and video we've tried to make the audience feel involved in the process of making the video, and also aimed to make them feel the emotions of the video. Although the video was made and finished before we even thought about the album cover Ive tried to carry a homemade look throughout the project and this is supported by the whole idea of the CD case. Ive chosen to design the digi-pack on the basis of the 'audition stage with the Polaroids, this gives the feel of the aud
ience picking the cast as i have incorporated images that we have taken when filming, it also gives it a homemade and vintage feel as Polaroid's aren't used very much due to the advancing technology. We feel that the Polaroid's support the laid back, low budget feel of the video as it was filmed in several houses, we didn't have any expensive clothing etc just like The Vaccines video itself and this style is carried throughout the 3 types of media. Although i have stated in other posts that we wanted to put our own modern spin on our video, opposed to The Vaccines, i didn't want this for the digi-pack as indie CD cases seem to say independent and unusual no matter what there music videos are like and i felt changing this would be going against that giving the audience a false pretense because of the music on the album. Although saying that the pictures throughout the album appear quite modern due to the props, such as the bedding etc, decor of the house and fancy dress custumes of the cast.

When designing the magazine advert i wanted to carry the Polaroid look on, so the video and CD were all consistent but i didn't want it to be completely the identical to the CD case as it would become boring, which i is why i added the lyrics into the 2 pages of the digipack, so to solve this i placed the pictures on top of each other to give it a lazy feel just like the video itself. I have used the same dymo tape font throughout the advert, CD case and insert which links them all well, even though i haven't use polaroid photos on the insert. Designing the magazine advert proved to be quite hard for me as i didn't want to bombard the audience with lots of information as i felt that magazines can be quite overwhelming with pictures and paragraphs of writing so i decided to keep it simple. I also felt adding such things like comments or reviews on the advert might of sold it better, but due to the font it would of been to overwhelming and would of covered the pictures. The advert and to some extent the CD case could sell the product on their indie basis. For example marketing in such magazine such as NME, a top indie magazine would make it sell better as people reading the magazine like that kind of music, rather then putting the advert into a magazine such as OK or Hello where it could of teenage girls and elder women.

Evaluation- Question 1

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

For our production of The Vaccines Post-break up sex we wanted to produce a video with the main narrative focused around the morning after a party, we also wanted to include a performance piece as this seemed a key convention for artists in the indie genre. We wanted our video to be as close as possible to professional music video, so when recording our performance piece we used the college’s recording studio this enabled us to use the JVC. HO with studio kit attached. These high tech cameras were perfect for recording the band footage. Along with using four of these cameras we also used a smaller handheld camera on a crane; having all of these cameras we were able to get lots of different footage of the band which gave our video a more realistic look.

We wanted our video to be simple so we used basic camera shots and did not include any fancy camera angles. The whole idea of a simple video came from research into to The Vaccines, who were quoted in an interview saying that Post-break up sex was one of their simplest songs and that is why the original video was simple and why we wanted ours simple. We also wanted our video to be completely indifferent to music videos in the indie genre so before production we researched into the indie genre by analysing other videos from the indie genre. We looked at L.I.F.E.G.O.E.S.O.N by Noah and the Whale and The Cave by Munford and sons; from these videos we found three key conventions of the indie genre:
• Performance piece
• A relaxed video without a lot of lighting and editing
• A lack of camera angles and movement

We wanted to include all of these things in our video however some of our footage looked too lit up and did not have the relaxed look we wanted, but we knew that we could solve this in the editing process where we used the Bad TV effect to give our footage a more faded and relaxed look. However our video does challenge the indie genre as we included a lot of editing such as cross cuts and fades. We did this to give the video a more professional look as without these effects the footage did not flow well making our video look it was made by armatures.

Using Goodwin's theory of the six major conventions of a music video we've been able to assess our own video to see if it follows these conventions. One of Goodwin’s conventions was that the lyrics and the visuals link, this can be seen in many music videos for example Eminem’s Stan (http://youtu.be/gOMhN-hfMtY). We decided that we would try to match our lyrics and visuals at certain parts of our video but not the whole way through, for example at 00:00:58 the lyrics were “All our friends were unaware; most had just passed out downstairs.” And the image shown was of someone passed out on the floor. Also when the lyric was “Maybe I misunderstood” the image is of someone with ‘misunderstood’ on their forehead. We feel that even though they are only simple links they are effective in our video.

Another on Goodwin’s conventions refers to the genre conventions of a video, as I mentioned above we looked into our genre and found three key conventions that we tried to stick to. This brings us to the third of Goodwin’s conventions: the representation of the artist. However our genre is about not conforming to typical conventions of music videos and not being seen as a ‘sell out’ however we decided to include a few close ups of the band and our main protagonist Sam so people knew he was the main protagonist and not for publicity. We also knew that our video may give the artist a negative representation as it focused on issues such as teenage drinking, drug taking and teenage sexual intercourse. This is not how we wanted our artist to be represented at first but then we realised this representation may be a positive as some of our themes can be seen as taboo and by showing them in our video it would allow our video not to be forgotten. This is something every artist wants for their music.

Goodwin also suggested that music videos must include the 'notion of looking'. However there aren't really any notions of looking in our video as things such as telescopes and screens with screens are not used. Also there is no voyeuristic treatment of the female body in our video even though there is shots of females in there underwear this is not voyeuristic as they are simply included to demonstrate what had happened the night before. Although there are some intertextual references to in our video, looking at our video you could also say there is some references to the teenage TV series Skins that was aired on Channel 4, due to the outrageous costumes, Alcohol and drugs and the 'Out of Control' modern teenager. Skins was one of our main influences as it is targeted at teenagers (the same as our video) and it also deals with many of the same themes of our video.

Goodwin's last theory on music videos is that each one demonstrates genre characteristics. This is something we found throughout our research; we learnt that most videos in the indie genre contain a performance piece for example Noah and the Whale’s Waiting for my chance to come (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b1FZtiC5BRk). I mentioned above we feel we stuck to all the conventions of the indie genre and that we have demonstrated them well in our video.

Change of Magazine Advert

After gaining some feedback from our audience it was suggested that we straight up the HMV logo at the bottom left corner of the screen to make the magazine advert look more professional. I tried this to show we were willing and decided to keep the new version and i also decided to add an itunes logo to show the album is available on itunes along with HMV. This supports the album as well as promotes it to show that The Vaccines have made it big in the music industry. It also appeals to wider audience and could make the album sell more copies as with todays new technology not many people by albums, they might just download them.

Change of Digi Pack

After a group dicussion we have decided to add d the lyrics to two songs on the album, 'Wreckin' Bar Ra Ra Ra' as its one of the shortest songs and we were quite stuck for space, and the other song we have chosen to make a video for, 'Post Break Up Sex'. The pictures around the lyrics are to draw the audience in and make it a more personal experience for them. These pictures were taken whilst filming and as we have stated before were added to give the audience a more personal feel. The pictures also show that the band and cast have put a lot of hard work into making of the album,and that its all their own work.

The pictures have been edited in all the same way, and the original idea was to have the same layout as the front and back covers of the album, but to me that seemed to constant and also looked quite hectic, and adding the lyrics cut that up a bit. As you can see on the 'Post break Up Sex' lyrics cover, i have added a picture of a wall in one of the bedrooms we have used, i did this to break up the pictures as Jake was in quite a lot of the shots.

Digi Pack Insert

After talking to some of our peers and having a production meeting we have decided to make an insert to put into of CD cover to break the design up. As the 3 rows of Polaroid's make the CD cover look busy and the same design is used on both the front, back, and both pages of the digi pack we felt adding a new, more simple page would break down the covers and might add a fresher design to the pack. I have kept the same dymo tape font to link them together as the design isn't similar in any way to the other pages. The TV is the made object in the picture and i have chosen to use a vintage television to keep the old feel throughout. The numbers on the insert indicate to which page the lyrics are on to make it easier for the audience.

Finished Magazine Advert

Finished Insert

Finished Inside Covers

1.

2.

Finished Album Cover

Front.

Back.

Digi Pack Inspiration

When designing the digi-pack, especially the front and back of the album i was going off a few ideas i have put together when analyzing other indie albums and there magazine promotions. Indie album covers all seem to be original and personal, whether it be using an oil painting like Bombay Bicycle Club, or a picture taken on a drug and alcohol fueled night out like The Libertines, they all tell some sort of story. Most of all i was aiming for it to be quite personal, so the audience have more of a view of the real band, which also supports the song as its personal and emotional and also because of the genre of the band itself. Alongside that i didn't want to break the stereotypical look of this kind of genres album cover as they seem to follow the same idea, for example, simple, everyday clothing, the photo focuses on the band itself and not selling them on a particular aspect such as appearance. I have used the idea of the selecting process for a cast in a music video or a modeling shoot as the pictures are very real and personal, for instance, when you audition dancers the band sometimes have a Polaroid photo of the person auditioning and i have used this idea to make the audience feel more involved in the album. Instead of using our actual cast (which could of been done just as easily) i felt getting photos from the video can sum up the emotion and feel of the album itself just by picking the album up and looking as the pictures vary, from the main protagonist in Post break up sex looking regretful and sad, to the a girl dressed up as a band member, passed out in the bath, it all relates to a wide audience.

Carrying the idea of the album cover being personal i have used the photos i have talked about in a previous post that were taken during filming to our advantage and have used them in the middle of our digi-pack. I wanted to audience to see behind the scenes photos of the making of post break up sex so i used the whole picture, including the camera and camera person instead of cropping them out in the to make them look like they where taken from the actual video itself which i did for the front and back on the album. The lyrics of 2 songs have also been added into the into the middle of the digi-pack which is seen in a lot of albums whether they are indie or not.

For example this is a picture of audition Polaroids that i have found on Google images as an example for my inspiration, comparing it to the front of our album cover.

Permission letter.

We gave all of our actors permission letters for them to sign, giving us permission to use any of the footage we collected of them in the filming process. We sent out permission letters as we wanted to act professional during the production process. We also wanted our actors to know what they were going to do and to let them know that if they had any problems with what they were asked to do they could tell us and we would change their role to suit them.

Photoshop Processes

I have used Photo Shop to put together our album pack. It was quite simple really once i got the hang of it because i have had some experience with photo shop processes but very basic ones. I did actually make another album cover with the same idea but found out that we weren't allowed to use it as the images weren't actually our own. This wasn't much of a problem as i was used to using photo shop by then to do what was needed, so it didn't take all that long to change, although it was a bit annoying as we all decided to to use images off the video itself but this created a problem as the quality of the photos weren't up to scratch, so after making the front and back again, i wasn't satisfied to i started from scratch. Luckily, during filming we had taken some photos of the cast acting which came in very handy as it gave me a better quality of picture to work with, we were quite short of these so i have used some behind the scene photos but this isn't all that obvious to the audience but even if it was it gives them a more personal experience. Before i did anything i had to make a 12 x 12 inch canvas to be the back ground of the image, i then added a dirty white color for the background so it made the outline of the Polaroid more easier to see. Then i was able to get sorted on the editing the pictures. Firstly, I found a picture of a Polaroid off Google and simply cut the original image out and incorporated our own images into the picture after giving them a Polaroid, warming effect.

To do this i had to import the photo into photo shop and then duplicate the layer, which added a new picture over the original background.

I then changed the duplicated layer to 'Soft Light', which added a more unnatural dark light, that you see in some Polaroid photos.

I then added a new fill layer and changed the color to a very dark navy blue, which covered the duplicated and background layer until i set the layer to 'Exclusion', this gave the photo a blue effect as well as making it look quite warm due to the 'Soft Light'.

By this stage if was happy with the look of the photo i then copied it into the Polaroid frame, but if not i had to add a new layer, this time a 'Level' layer, i then tweeted the light level of the picture until i was satisfied, this his was only done on a few images due to the darkness of the original photo.

When the image was set in the Polaroid frame it was just a case of copying the image into the 12 x 12 background and then making it a bit wonky to make it fit the idea. As you can see this is the original pictures used are boring and don't look anything like a Polaroid photo, i have added a picture to show the end product after the effects have been added. The pictures in particular were used in the middle of the digi pack in 'Behind the scenes of break up sex'.

Inspiration from Skins

Skins is a BAFTA award-winning British teen drama that follows a group of teenagers in Bristol, through the two years of college. The controversial plot line explores issues such as dysfunctional families, mental illnesses, adolescent sexuality, and death. The show premiered on E4 on 25 January 2007.

Skins has broadcast five series, and has been commissioned up to a sixth. In the UK, the show is currently on its fifth series, which introduces a third generation of Bristolian teenagers. A Skins film, focusing on characters from the show's first four series, is also in production & expected to be released 2012. The Skins brand has also been exported overseas; an American adaptation but was later canceled after just 10 episodes.

Watching our music video you can see that Skins has massively influenced the way we have filmed, props, costumes and even the narrative. As stated before we have gone for the morning after plot and this is seen in nearly every episode of skins, obviously we cannot replicated Skins down to a Tee due to the explicit nature but we felt we have portrayed enough for the audience to get the jist of what we are getting at. As Skins has done we have addressed such things as teen sex, drug taking, alcohol abuse and just the modern day teenager. The TV series follows a group of middle class adolescents which has influenced our choice of costumes and locations a lot, comparing this to the The Vaccines original video we didn't budget or props to achieve this but we couldn't copy it in every way. The props used in skins, could also be called 'Odd' and we have gone for the same affect. Things such as light sabers, fancy dress costumes have been used as like in skins.

The Vaccines

The Vaccines are an english indie/rock band who formed in West London in 2010. The band's debut album, What Did You Expect From The Vaccines? was released through Columbia Records on 14 March 2011 which reached number 4 in the UK Album Chart and are currently the biggest selling new band of 2011. The band, however, describe their influences as "50s rock 'n' roll, '60s garage, '70s punk, '80s American hardcore, C86 and good pop music". They have toured extensively and opened up for the likes Arctic Monkeys.

Formed in early 2010, the band consists of Justin Young (guitar/vocals), Árni Hjörvar (bass), Freddie Cowan (guitar) and Pete Robertson (drums). After months of attempting to perfect their sound, the band uploaded the demo "If You Wanna" to Youtube in August 2010 and the song immediately received praise from people such as Zane Lowe, who named it as his 'Hottest Record In The World. After playing their first gig, they embarked on their debut UK tour between September and November 2010, and interest in the band led their first London performance to sell out, and 200 people having to be turned away. The performance was awarded 4/5 by The Gaurdian.

Narrative of Post Break Up Sex

When planning and brain storming ideas for our video we decided to added a narrative to keep the audience engaged with the story and as its quite an emotional and personal song which can relate to a wide range of people we felt we could use this to our advantage. Our first plan was for the main protagonist to end up in different locations to show that teen sex, regretful sex and "post break up sex" is a common thing but the way we have edited it, it looks like the main protagonist is at the same party throughout. We don't feel this has really impacted the video in any way as we did follow the plan of using several locations, the storyline was still follow, and the issue was addressed.

Our music video follows a simple and clear narrative throughout, not to mention its easy to follow for any age (over 16s). The main protagonist same wakes up the morning after a party and walks through the house realizing what has happening the night before. As he opens each door he enters a different scenario, all with the same meaning. As the audience can see each couple has had sexual intercourse the night before and has regrets in the morning, which is shown by the expressions on the casts face. During Sam's journey he starts to get his act together, for example retrieving his clothing and then he leaves the house leaving all the mess behind him.

Throughout the video there are clips or performance elements throughout but the narrative and storyline can still be followed. We felt we needed to spouse up the video and also take advantage of the excellent facility's at college to give it more of a professional look. Our video is a non linear narrative as we haven't followed one straight story straight through as we have added flashback type shots and performance shots throughout. Our video is also multi strand, although we have one story its linked together by multiple story lines all with the same meaning due to the multiple couples but it all unites at the end of the video

The morning after:

Representations

Like most indie genre music bands and the videos that come with them, we wanted the actions and themes of our music video to represent the themes that the lyrics of Post Break Up Sex resemble. In turn we wanted to keep to the mise en scene of The Vaccines.

The appearance and location of the actors and actresses of our music video are crucial to truly understand to meaning behind the lyrics. The mise en scene of ‘the morning after’ scenario is shown throughout out production. As we travel from room to room with our main protagonist, we notice a number of actions have taken place that represent the scenario in detail.

For example we see that most people have taken to the typical action of sleeping with someone who they clearly should not of. This is seen as a typical action in the morning after scenario as it gives the audience a slight connection with the characters that are being played. The audience could feel sympathetic towards the ‘couples’ due to their own previous encounters with the scenario present, as this is one of the most common mishaps that occur during and after a party has taken place.

Teenagers are represented in their typical aspect. Linking to one of our main insperations, Skins, we took notice that teenagers of the 21^st century have been associated with exstensive drug use and alcoholism which leads to the other aspect, which is seen as the main concern in our musci video, which is sexual contact.

The mise en sence of our music video clearly resprents a typical teenager as the set of the location is a house party set the morning after. Also the costumes that our characters are dressed in are close to the teenagers typical representation.