Podcast evaluation

Evaluation

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

My product uses, develops, and challenges the forms and conventions of real media products. I designed my video on the styles of music videos of bands from the early ‘70’s, to match the sound and style of the band themselves. I also took inspiration from the videos taken of live footage of bands from the same genre. I did this by using similar editing techniques, such as the heavy use of overlaps and cross-fades. I also used camera techniques to mimic the videos I had analysed and researched. I used close ups and extreme close ups of the guitarist and the bassist taken from an angle looking down the guitar neck, and from directly in front. I used extreme close ups of the drums during the accented beats to highlight the pounding beat of the track and this is an effect commonly used in videos of the hard rock genre. I made effective use of panning, and zoom shots to appear as though I am following the band around the room, even though I filmed each member separate.

I have developed the conventions of the videos I have researched by portraying the band in a slightly fun-loving light, as shown by the unusual faces and cheeky smiles the band members pull from time to time, as well as cementing the fact that they are a serious band. This is a development, as in a lot of videos the bands are always seen to be serious and straight to the point. It makes them appear to be better than the rest of us, which isn’t good as it means they have forgotten their roots in blues music and in the working classes where most of these bands came from originally. I have used these little shots to show them to be the same as the rest of us, a concept heavily featured in blues music.

I have challenged the conventions of the vast majority of videos, but in the rare cases I have also developed their forms and conventions by using symbolism and interpretive meaning. My video has no narrative, as it is supposed to be a reflection and symbolisation of blues music – the root of all rock music. Blues is about individual expression and personal creativity. I have symbolised this by featuring the band members on their own almost separate from every other member. Even The guitarist is seen at key points in the video, in his bedroom as if he is jamming over guitar licks on his own. Each shot is edited to blend in with each other, so that even though they are on their own, they are each adding their own piece of creativity into the song and it all blends in to create a great piece of music, and a great video.


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

In relation to blues music and the hard rock genre, the combination is very effective. The Image I have used for my album cover was a black and white image I found on Google of a Fender Stratocaster, the same guitar James used in the video. This is an iconic image in almost all styles of music, but in particular in blues and rock. I did this to provide a minimalistic approach similar to that of blues music, and the very stripped down sound of guitars, bass and drums that the band themselves employ. This minimalistic feel is very similar to the video itself, as the video is set mainly in one location, is based around one theme, and has a very simple structure.

When making my magazine advertisement, I decided to make it stand out and appear slightly different from my album cover. To achieve this, I decided upon using the same images of the Fender Strat and the band’s logo, except I inverted the colours to make the black become white and the white become black.

3. What have you learnt from your audience feedback?

Largely, my audience feedback has been positive. These points include that it is enjoyable to watch, that I have met the conventions of my genre, that I have included plenty of meat shots and that I have synchronised the visuals to the track effectively. Points of improvement that I have been made aware of are that the lip synching is slightly out and can be off-putting, but that is due to the fact that the song is performed by their new and current vocalist, whereas the video is starring their old singer. Another point of improvement is that there is a lack of narrative. Reason for this being that I wanted to make the video more symbolic and representative using performance instead of a narrative, also due to time and technical issues I could not use the narrative I was hoping to.

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

In the research and planning stages, I used the website YouTube to research videos of the same style and genre, which is where I drew inspiration from.

In the construction stages, I used technology, which included a video camera to capture my footage and the Apple Mac program iMovie to edit the video. I recorded the song I used myself in the college studio, using a V-4000 mixing desk, the program Sonar and I mixed the song on Cubase 4.

In the construction of my ancillary texts, I used Photoshop to create them and I used it in a far more advanced way than I did in AS. I used tools such as colour inversion, the rubber tool, magic wand, and even manipulation of layers and their opacity to create what many believe to be a professionally made album and magazine advert.

The video

Music Videos

Here is a list of videos I have looked at to draw inspiration from.

Whitesnake - Ready To Rock

Rainbow - Difficult To Cure (live)

Deep Purple - Black Knight (live)

Airbourne - Runnin' Wild

Whitesnake - Slow An' Easy

Ac Dc - Shake Your Foundations

Ac Dc - Fly On The Wall

Motorhead - Whorehouse Blues

Stevie Ray Vaughan & Double Trouble - Superstition

Airbourne - Heartbreaker (live)

Def Leppard - Armageddon It (live)

Iron Maiden - Wrathchild (live)

Ac Dc - Thunderstruck

Santana - She's Not There (live)

Motorhead - Rock Out

Saxon - Ride Like The Wind

Updates

I have begun work on my music video and as of now am currently up to the start of the second verse. I am thoroughly impressed with what I have done, and I have already gotten plenty of positive feedback so far. I shall continue to edit my video after I have gotten my shots of the band in their rehearsal space this Saturday.

Slow An Easy by Whitesnake

Analysis of Slow An Easy by Whitesnake

Analysis of Whitesnake ‘Slow An’ Easy’

The song opens with a shot of a dirt road, which then smoothly fades into a close up of the lead singer, David Coverdale. Examples of thought beats are shown throughout the video. The smooth transitions and superimpositions match the slow and smooth start of the song. When the bass comes in the camera displays an extreme close up of his fretboard as he plays. A similar shot is used to highlight the guitarist’s slide guitar intro. The main focus of the camera is on David’s eyes when he sings the line “I can’t see you baby, I can’t see you anymore”

The lights then flash to the beats of the drums when the song properly kicks in. During the breakdown, the band claps their hands to match the track.

As for narrative, the narrative of the video doesn’t match the lyrics. The song is in all senses a love song about making love to a woman, typical of the style of music. The video on the other hand, has a narrative of its own. The storyline is revealed gradually in small chunks through the video. The first hint of it is a shot of a car accident at the start. From what we can gather as we watch the video is that the narrative involves a woman, her car and a mysterious pearl necklace. The necklace is also wrapped around David’s hand during the shots of the band’s performance. It is then revealed later in the video that David is the one seen putting the pearls around her neck, just after a shot of him trashing her dressing room in anger. At the end of the video we see him discovering the car crash and her necklace near the wreckage. Just after he picks it up, a car that looks exactly like the one in the accident pulls up next to him and he discovers her behind the wheel without her necklace on. She then drives away very quickly leaving him behind.

Performance is used throughout the video and it is made up mainly of the shots of the band on stage. They are seen on a fully functioning stage with a full light show, monitor speakers and even the drums with microphones placed near them as if they are about to capture the sound through a PA system, as if they are playing at a real live concert. The guitarist points his guitar in the air and David does the same with the mic stand on a number of occasions, like you would expect to see at a real rock concert. Even the band mimes to the backing vocals as though it is a real show, and the camera’s attention is then brought to them.

Star image is important in this video. The first minute of the video is made up mainly of extreme close up shots of David Coverdale’s mouth or eyes, and whole face. During the guitar fills, the camera brings its attention to the lead guitarist in low angle shots to highlight his skills and bring focus to his facial expressions. The same can be said for the drummer when he does his little drum fills. During the guitar solo, the camera focuses on the guitarist and shows close up shots of his guitar.

Visuals occasionally relate to the song in this video. Examples of this includes tracking shots of the word ‘Slow’ written on the road when David sings ‘Take me down slow an’ easy’. Also, all the instruments are played perfectly in synch as though they performed it live.

Lyric breakdown

time in the song - words - length of shot

0.36 - What can I do, when the morning breaks? ]

0.41 - Didn’t sleep too much, now my head aches ] 14 secs

0.45 - I’m living in the red house, there’s not much to do ]

0.50 - So I pull out a 45, and listen to the blessed blues 5 secs

0.55 - How could I live without you? 5 secs

1.01 - Just how could I survive? 5 secs

1.06 - I’ve got a soft spot for the blues 4 secs

1.11 - Cause it makes me feel alive 4 secs

1.25 - I’m sitting here, in my easy chair 4 secs

1.30 - Don’t feel no fingers, running through my hair 5 secs

1.35 - I just have to stay here, and try to relax ] [6 secs]

1.40 - So I pull out a bottle,] and talk to Jack. 3 secs

1.46 - How could I live without you? 5 secs

1.51 - Just how could I ]survive? [2 secs ] 2 secs

1.55 - I’ve got a soft spot for the blues 4 secs

2.01 - Cause it makes me feel alive 3 secs

2.15 - [Guitar Solo]

2.40 - [Bass Solo]

2.56 - How could I live without you? 4 secs

3.01 - Just how could I survive? 4 secs

3.06 - I’ve got a soft spot for the blues] 8 secs

3.11 - Cause it makes me feel alive]

Evaluation of ancillary tasks

I have used stylistic quality of the hard rock genre, in particular the blues aspect of it to influence my design for the digipak and the magazine advert. I modeled the front cover on the design for Stevie Ray Vaughn's album 'SRV', which depicts his trademark guitar in black and white. In this genre, signature guitars are just as important to the band's identity as the members themselves. Hand of Aces have their own trademark guitars by which they are well known for - Danny Dixon has his Zakk Wylde Gibson Les Paul, James Pattison had his tobacco-burst Fender Stratocaster and Lloyd Tudor has his blue Fender P' Bass. As James was the frontman of this band I decided to use an image of a Fender Strat for the front cover. I came to the conclusion that this would be perfect to represent the band, especially if I incorporated their 'fistful of aces' band logo. I also decided upon this choice as the Fender Strat is the most commonly used guitar and a key image in electric blues. Even the signature guitar of SRV was a custom designed Fender Strat. I found a perfect, artistic, black and white photo of the guitar on Google, and this became the feature cover of the digipak. The back cover, I modeled on the back cover of '...And Justice For All' by Metallica, in terms of layout and organisation of information. The inside cover, was designed to be simplistic yet still representative of the band, so I came to the decision of a black background with the four suits of a pack of playing cards, diamonds, clubs, hearts and spades, laid out. The inlay was designed to be the band logo represented in realistic terms, so I found an image of a human hand holding the four aces, and I used the magic wand tool to cut out the band name in the flesh of the hand. For the magazine advert, I took inspiration from magazines such as NME, Kerrang and Classic Rock. The design was supposed to appeal to the younger teenage audiences and to be the style that would appear in Kerrang and Classic Rock. I wanted it to stand out from the album cover, but still incorporate it into the design. I decided to use the Fender Strat image on the front cover but I inverted the colours so that the black would become white and the white would become black. I blew the image up to a size large enough to cover most of an A4 page, decided to use a military stenciled style font to appeal to the teenage culture of rockers, and included the band logo in the top left of the page large enough to be recognised. I decided to include incentive information about the album as a marketing tool, including information of what sort of music is on the CD, and the fact there is an official music video included, and I stated the date the album would be due to be released. Overall, I am very much pleased with my eventual outcome and as a matter of fact, so are the band themselves!

Updates

Today, I have finished my magazine advert.

I will be filming the lead guitarist, Danny Dixon, playing the song on his own in his bedroom on Thursday. I will be using the footage to introduce the video, and I will interweave the shots into the rest of the video and I may possibly end with a similar shot.

I will be filming their shows at the Rovers Rugby Club on the 3rd of April and at The Studio on the 26th of February. These will make up the shots of a pub gig and a large scale rock show.

I will soon have a copy of the song as the January exams are almost over and finished with. I am already aware that the drummer has finished his exams, I am just waiting for confirmation from the rest of the band so I can book them in the Red Dreams studio to record the song to be used in this music video.

In the meantime, I will research similar videos set in a bar setting as well as those filmed at live shows. I will edit my footage as I go, and I will evaluate my work so far as it develops too.

If all goes according to plan, it is highly possible I will have this entire project finished long before my deadline in May.

Magazine advert

The Bar Room

Hand of Aces have a gig at the Rovers Rugby Club, and as such I will get in contact with them to make sure they will be playing the song there, and if they are I will film the show for the pub scenes. To draw inspiration on this, I will observe videos such as those from AC/DC's 'Fly On The Wall' album and other videos based in a bar or pub.

Action plan

Because I have found it to be a little easier to shoot the band members seperately to achieve the best possible shots for myself to use, I will take it upon myself to shoot them seperately for the time being to be able to get as many opportunities to film as I can. I shall start with the drummer, Elliot Laws, as he has the same periods of free study as myself. I will also film the lead guitarist Danny Dixon on his own in his bedroom as he opens the osng with its main riff.

Updates

So far I have finished my digipak and I'm currently researching designs for a magazine advert. As for filming and planning, here is my situation.

During Christmas I filmed the band during their show at the Burn Valley Social Club. Unfortunately, they did not play 'A Soft Spot For Blues', but I intend to use the footage one way or another. At the very least, I will be using it to practice use of Final Cut. In the last weekend of January, I filmed them playing the song during their practice, and all went fantastically. They ran through the song 3 times and each time I filmed a different band member, with the intentions of editing the footage to create a single video of the band. Sadly, due to a faulty camera, my footage was completely lost, and it is unknown as to when I can recapture it.

I am still currently without the song to work with as everyone has been too busy with the exams, but I hope to rectify that soon enough.

I will be getting the lyrics as soon as possible so that I can make start on creating a narrative, or even the basis of an idea for a disjunctured video. Once these road blocks are out of my way, I should be finished within the month.

Analysis of 'Runnin' Wild' by Airbourne

Thought beats are seen during the video with the main example of the police cars. The police cars fly past on the motor-way to the pace of the song. Also, the band are seen 'head banging' to the beat of the music. The video too, is edited to the beat of the song.

The narrative of the video involves the band hijacking a lorry and performing the song in the back of the trailer. Lemmy, the lead singer and bassist of the band Motorhead, is seen driving the band as they are being chased by the police. The police then catch the lorry, jump in the trailer to find it empty, and are locked in by Lemmy who calmly walks away from the scene, dusting his hands. The song itself is about a man leaving his wife/girlfriend/lover for reasons unknown and taking to the open road to enjoy being free and single.

The band are seen rocking out in the back of the lorry with Marshall stacks lining the walls of the inside. The light show is provided by the police sirens.

Star image is important in this video. Shots of Lemmy from Motorhead in his cowboy hat and dark sunglasses are included throughout the video. There are close ups of the vocalist when he starts to sing and the same go for the band who provide the backing vocals. Shots of the drummer are seen when he plays his drum fills.

The visuals relate to the lyrics. Shots of the lorry being chased are seen when the vocalist sings "You've got me running wild and free". The lorry is seen cruising down the motor-way when the vocalist sings "The open road is all I need".

The technical aspects are smartly used to fit the video perfectly. The video is created with fast cuts and tracking shots. Close ups and extreme close ups are just some of the various shots used to emphasize the band. Also, as an unusual twist, the start of the video has been made to resemble a news report of a high speed chase.

Analysis of 'Runnin' Wild' by Airbourne

'Runnin' Wild' by Airbourne

Inlay

Inside cover

Back cover

Front cover