2. In what ways does your media product
use, develop or challenge forms and
conventions of real media products?
Question one
3. In what ways does your media product
use, develop or challenge forms and
conventions of real media products?
The genre is “geek rock” which Johnathan
Coulton often uses for his songs, this
means that the song lyrics reflect the
“geek” theme involving zombies and
office workers popping pills. This is
shown further by tracks named “our
bodies, ourselves, our cybernetic
arms”,”a laptop like you” and “code
monkey”.
4. In what ways does your media product
use, develop or challenge forms and
conventions of real media products?
One of the characteristics of “geek rock” is
a lot of performance within the music
video. Johnathan Coulton also uses a folk
genre feel over most of his songs, I
choose to show this through Al on a stool
which he sits on when doing the
performance pieces in the studio.
5. In what ways does your media product
use, develop or challenge forms and
conventions of real media products?
The relationship between lyrics and
visuals are all illustrative to follow the
narrative of the zombie siege whereas
the relationship between music and
visuals is limited to keeping the melody
and the slow tempo represented by a
long time between the cuts.
6. Illustrative visuals and lyric
relationship examples
“Why you folks might hesitate to submit to our demand”
this is were the demands are slipped beneath the door.
“I’m not a monster tom well technically I am” this is
shown by through the look of thought on Al
7. Illustrative visuals and lyric
relationship examples
“Got another meeting tom, maybe we could
wrap it up” The meeting room was used and
we choose to place Al behind a computer with
the smart board in the back ground.
8. Illustrative visuals and lyric
relationship examples
“meanwhile I’ll report back to my colleagues
who are chewing on the doors” which is directly
shown as the two actors, Al was standing with
before hand claw at the doors.
9. In what ways does your media product
use, develop or challenge forms and
conventions of real media products?
Within the guild music video “date my avatar” Felica Day
is lip synched for the entire video this co-insides with
my video however this only fits “geek pop” but not
“geek rock” so I took into account that and then looked
at 30 seconds to mars “from yesterday” that I followed
with cuts to them performing on the temple stairs. 30
seconds to mars also cuts to narrative within the Asian
temple complex/palace. This is what I decided to use.
10. In what ways does your media product
use, develop or challenge forms and
conventions of real media products?
Johnathan Coulton himself does not
belong to a record label instead he posts
his music onto his own website.
Johnathan Coulton has worked as a
computer programmer and thus is able to
easily sell his own music online. Due to
the lack of advertising etc. close ups
aren’t important as there is no stress
from record companies.
11. In what ways does your media product
use, develop or challenge forms and
conventions of real media products?
Johnathan Coulton stays to his core
beliefs of alternative music, that its for
the music and creative thrill not money.
Throughout the music video there is no
voyeuristic treatment of the female and
male body with little references to the
notion of looking.
12. In what ways does your media product
use, develop or challenge forms and
conventions of real media products?
There are a few inter-textual references
like the actor max in the nazi costume
mise-en-scene and myself (josh) dressed
in school shirt, with red tie being ginger I
made a lose reference to “Shaun of the
dead” this image could have been
reinforced by a base ball bat and a record
which Shaun throws throughout the start
of the film “Shaun of the dead”.
14. Inter textual reference
explained
Al represents Johnathan Coulton so I
decided to not give him the costume to
make him an inter-reference however I’m
dressed as Shaun from “Shaun of the
dead” played by Simon Pegg whereas
Max is dressed as a nazi zombie such as
the ones in “dead snow”, “call of duty”
and “Hellboy”.
15. In what ways does your media product
use, develop or challenge forms and
conventions of real media products?
Genre characteristics across all three tasks
are kept closely performance and artist
based alike to other songs and CDs of the
“rock” genre this is why on the CD Al as
Johnathan Coulton is throughout, on the
back and front while max is on the inside
cover. Performance like this is shown
throughout the music video in the music
studio and on the stage during the solo.
16. In what ways does your media product
use, develop or challenge forms and
conventions of real media products?
The target audience is catered for by the mise
-en-scene, zombie dress has always been
targeted and always attracted “geek” also there
is no advertising like product placement so the
target demographic knows that he produces
music for enjoyment and not personal gain in
terms of wealth. Al being shown a lot playing
guitar throughout the music video also attracts
more fans as people would want to see the
artist proving his authenticity.
17. how effective is the combination
of main product and ancillary
tests?
Question two
18. how effective is the combination of
main product and ancillary tests?
Al represents Johnathan Coulton and he is shown on
every piece of the tasks on the CD he is on the back,
front and inside cover while max is shown on the inside
cover behind the CD. Max and I is less important to the
brand and image that Johnathan Coulton upholds
however if he were part of a record label the actors
/dancers Josh (me) and Max would not be able to make
appearances within the tasks.
19. how effective is the combination of
main product and ancillary tests?
This is partly the reason why I choose to only include Al
on the poster to the right with a few layers of him to
give an artistic shadow effect. I still had to have the CD
cover so that buyers and target audiences will know
what they are looking for in store and see what they
are buying with the release date.
20. how effective is the combination of
main product and ancillary tests?
The zombie image has always been key to gaining
access to the target audience/demographic as many of
them will have used other media like video games, films
and website coverage. The theme of the song is
zombies so that “unlocks” the potential to use this
market place.
21. how effective is the combination of
main product and ancillary tests?
The CD covers and poster tasks used the same
programmes to be produced, I used
macromedia fireworks to add the effects like
shadow, outer bevel and glow.
22. how effective is the combination of
main product and ancillary tests?
The demographics of Johnathan Coulton’s
primary audience is “geeks” this is due to the
themes and underlying narratives of all his
songs. I choose to accommodate the audience
by keeping all the tasks clean of voyeurism of
women and men something that you’d expect
of a rap CD however I have included shots of Al
that would please the demographic of rock as
they look for authenticity and promote
Johnathan Coulton’s music and brand.
23. What have you learned form
your audience feedback?
Question three
24. What have you learned
from audience feedback?
I have learnt a great deal from audience
feedback. At the start if the project I asked
what the target demographic and psycho
graphics what they thought of the story boards.
The audience agreed that the video should be
split into part main sections using performance
and illustrative film to follow the narrative of
the song.
25. What have you learned
from audience feedback?
I asked who the audience thought would be
good for the roles and got these results. Max
was swiftly nominated as he attends acting
lessons and is handy with filming even well
known for being creative. Next was Hannah
whom also attends acting lessons and after a
closer look had some mise-en-scene to use so
that she would make an inter textual reference
to milla jovovich in the film “resident evil”.
26. What have you learned
from audience feedback?
On the other hand Hannah would be more
awkward to coordinate, being at a different
school and generally quite busy with events. I
had two Alexs wanting to be in the film (Alex
Cook and Alex Preston) upon seeing the plans
however due to height I did not choose Alex
Cook as he’d dwarf any one on shot nor Alex
Preston as I knew that he hadn’t heard the
song before and didn’t match the look of
Johnathan Coulton.
27. What have you learned
from audience feedback?
I soon choose my three actors as Al, I’d been
told had listened to Johnathan Coulton before
and has a lot of free time which was perfect for
representing the artist as the audience and I
could see the same body build shared by both.
Then I choose Max as he himself had produced
his own films and acted while living close
enough so that I could see him freely and I was
informed that he is a very reliable character.
28. What have you learned
from audience feedback?
Finally I choose to include myself in the acting as people
debated if in costume I looked like Simon Pegg (I
before told them about inter textual references). I then
realised that with a bit of work I could become Simon
Pegg form “shaun of the dead” quite easily, Due to this
choice I took on Chris as a camera man after asking
peoples advice on the choice. They gave me the
evidence I needed saying that he had gone on filming
trips before posting them onto youtube with a group of
friends and that he easily understood the types of shots
when I questioned him for advice.
29. What have you learned
from audience feedback?
When looking at the storyboards a few more of the
technological members of my audience questioned the
placement of an animated bat (which I later took out
completely). The members simply said it feels out of
place and when it is played it will be so odd in
comparison with the rest of the film that it simply
doesn’t deserve being put in.
30. What have you learned
from audience feedback?
Others notified me that shooting the security
peep hole shot would be very difficult to edit
and produce so I looked into it searching the
web for the effect and asking my parents friend
that is often doing professional videos about
the effect. The result was that only high end
programmes would be able to do this to the
standard I had in mind and buying such a
programme would be costly so I simply
changed my shot plan to take the shot from the
open door on set.
31. What have you learned
from audience feedback?
I went off to shoot my first draft after which I showed it
to my actors and target audience who had a few points.
The audience said the lip synching was a touch off from
Al and that he needed to really emphasise the lyrics. So
when it came to re-shooting I could remind Al so that
each shot was better linked to the music that was
playing.
32. What have you learned
from audience feedback?
Others stated that the solo was missing, I took the solo
out for the first draft as it made it clearer too the actors
and allowed us to combat time constraints within the
team. Many of the audience told me that the solo was
there favourite part and that if I used it lip synching
would be easier to sort out, as in the editing stages
removal of the solo lead to issues with lip synching I
instantly saw that I should attempt to film a solo to test
the reaction of the audience whom told me that it was
a vast improvement when the old and new videos were
shown together.
33. What have you learned
from audience feedback?
Peoples opinions generally want more excitement on
screen with more pace, I told the audience that the
shot transitions had been slow to match the slow
melodic tempo of the song. The audience agreed with
the theory but made it clear that the rate of cuts were
too slow so I had to take note to edit again some
stages that they had highlighted for example the
“meeting” scene.
34. How did I use Media technology in the
construction and research, planning
and evaluation stages?
Question four
35. How did I use Media technology in the
construction and research, planning
and evaluation stages?
I used macromedia fireworks extensively while
making the CD covers and my poster.
Macromedia fireworks is a very powerful tool, it
has many available choices for editing like
inserting shadows bevels (an aura effect) and
glows etc. the list is near endless dependant of
how much you are willing to pay. All the effects
also had a custom aspect to then, allowing the
user to change the colours fonts even being
able to fill the text with patterns like glass
bubble which I used on my CD covers.
36. How did I use Media technology in the
construction and research, planning
and evaluation stages?
As you can see the words are full with the glass
bubble effect with glows added and sharpened.
37. How did I use Media technology in the
construction and research, planning
and evaluation stages?
The glow effect has been added to both the text
on the CD cover and the title on the poster.
These have been sharpened too fireworks is an
awesome tool that allowed me to gain quick
easy access to effects and good editing
software that allowed me to make professionals
looking tasks by simply adding blur effect and
the brilliant layer means that should anything
needs quick editing I can select the section and
un-effect all the other layers by locking them so
it saves the aspects of the other work.
39. How did I use Media technology in the
construction and research, planning
and evaluation stages?
I also used final cut to cut and edit the music
video so that it ran smoothly. We could take
multiple takes which then are easily cut into
place. Final cut express is good as it is a
relatively low cost editing software and is highly
effective. School computers and personal one I
used have final cut which meant that I could
continue work steadily through the project.
40. How did I use Media technology in the
construction and research, planning
and evaluation stages?
I used it while re-filming several times, when all
the film was cut in the right places I could then
add music which I used. A simple drag and
drop swiftly got myself on my way to fitting
the music to the film. For this I used the cut
/razor tool so it was a real must have piece of
software. On the second time round of filming
saving everything to an external hard drive and
USP cards gave me ease of access so I could
open the file up and work anywhere.
41. How did I use Media technology in the
construction and research, planning
and evaluation stages?
This time the solo had been and gone, editing it
was a little harder. I had to delete the pre
edited music and move the film sections apart
to allow the solo which I edited separately to sit
in the centre of the other song pieces. Then I
rendered it and listened to the new area. That
is one weakness of the final cut software Is
that in any changes mean you must wait for it
to render for 1-5 minutes which is quite time
consuming.
42. How did I use Media technology in the
construction and research, planning
and evaluation stages?
I added effects putting a “slug” in for the in-film
title screen. The slug then had to be edited to a
more suiting zombie text effect that shook the
text this took some time however choosing so a
fair amount of time was spent like a child in a
sweet shop choosing the best effect.
43. How did I use Media technology in the
construction and research, planning
and evaluation stages?
I used the internet with fibre optic wires to gain near
unlimited access to information on the web watching
videos of the same genre on youtube while being able
to read back ground information like where the videos
where shot who acted within them and who created the
videos. The internet and using phones were used to
communicate with the actors in my own video as well
via face book and messenger I could tell my actors
what they needed when and where which made life a
little easier to organise.
44. How did I use Media technology in the
construction and research, planning
and evaluation stages?
For actual filming I used a HD camera over a standard camera
because HD gives a better quality and is less grainy than the
standard. A tripod was used so that the camera man didn’t need
steady hands which helped me a lot as I could set the angle of the
camera myself and tell my camera man Chris what I wanted for
example the shot where we follow Al’s leg up would be almost
impossible to shoot without seriously steady hands.
45. How did I use Media technology in the
construction and research, planning
and evaluation stages?
I created a blog, so that if any audience members were
interested and had idea they could easily communicate
them to me. The blog allowed me to show my progress
and order my work which makes editing and
referencing to previous ideas a lot simpler. Being able
to find saved files is much more effective if there
organised on a blog. Using a blog allowed people to
discuss in comment boxes with other audience
members who often provide new, complex ways of
looking at the posts as two minds have debated over
good and bad points.
