Editing Process

Unfortunately we are unable to show our product on this blog due to copyright however the product can be accessed through the Hurtwoodhousemedia log in on youtube. During the pre-production stage we made storyboards so we could have an idea of what the final project was going to become. After months of preparation, the shoot day and weeks of editing we finished the pop video. In our editing process we used Final Cut Pro which is a time line based system. We incorporated special effects in our work such as de saturation of colour, jump cuts, blurs etc. this was done through the programme Adobe after Effects. We considered using the technique of montage in our work and it proved to be extremely effective. This idea was inspired by one of Russia’s most prominent filmmakers, Sergie eisenstein, who was also known as the father of montage and our mode of address. Einstein’s work was closely examined as a guide for our own work. His work played an important role in our own work and gave us ideas that we are now pleased with as we look at the finished product. Another programme used in the editing process was a programme called Colour to de saturate the images, making them either darker or lighter. Colour is a programme which allows you to change the appearance for the images, for example you can change the hue and saturation as well as brightness and colour of your video. Using Colour can sometimes be a very length process though because instead of being able to apply settings to the whole video you have to edit it shot by shot.

From my own personal experience I found the process of editing difficult as I knew little about how to use the programme but with the help of Matt and Luke, it become easier to use. We begun the editing process as a group yet as time progressed we took alternate turns to edit as we all had different ideas as to how our video would be constructed and, ultimately, how the finished product would look. In order to hasten the process of editing we applied the shots to the time line for the whole length of the shot and then placed smaller shots over the top of this. Though most people would have followed their storyboards, we did not due to last minute changes. For our group, it was just a case of experimenting with what worked and what didn’t. After we had finished our draft, we showed it to one of the media teacher’s mat, who gave us advice on how to improve it. Mat helped a lot as it was difficult for us to criticise our own work and we needed his aid to steer us in the right direction, giving us tips on what looks bad and what looks good. In the process of editing one can either use continuity editing or discontinuity. Continuity editing is editing that usually follows a certain pattern or a cuts on the beat. Discontinuity editing is the opposite of this, can often come across as quiet random. We chose discontinuity editing for editing our own product. We wanted to reveal the unstable and unbalanced mind that our star had. Whilst editing we also looked at theorist Negus to help us apply editing conventions. We subverted Negus's conventions of short shots; we also used a wide and extensive use of shot types, camera movements and angels which fitted nicely with our theme. From this experience I now feel more confident with using programmes such as final cut pro and feel my techniques have adapted since last year to give me a more sophisticated outlook on editing.

Account of Shoot day

The day begun promptly with a run through of how the day would proceed and alterations that may be required. As a group, we planned the various shots and the order in which they would take place. We did so by looking at the storyboard and questioning which shots we would and wouldn’t incorporate in our days filming ahead. Shortly after this we left school and headed to London, having packed all the necessities for the day such as the camera, tripod, hard wear for Battersea etc. upon arrival at Battersea we were given an induction on using the site for the day, consisting of do’s and don’ts and what to watch for whilst on the site such as hazardous objects. We then met with our artist, Alex Pointer, and were given our hard wear for the site such as helmets, safety jackets and boots. Whilst doing this we were also introduced to our guards for the day who watched us whilst we filmed. This was a requirement on behalf of Battersea to avoid injury and trespassing. We started filming at 12pm with shots of Alex walking around the station looking full of remorse and unhappiness. Luckily the day was dry and clear so we were able to get more shots than we had been expecting. This proceeded for about 3 or 4 hours, with Alex slowly moving around the building. We told our artist we wanted shots of him approaching a guitar, the guitar is important as it shows the connotations of the genre for our music video. The filming then moved to the inside of the building where Alex was told to walk slowly down the hill by the entrance towards our other cast member, Lily Resta, who lay at the bottom of the hill. Her presence is left open for our audience’s own interpretation yet she is there to represent the reason behind Alex’s misery. Inside the building we made sure, with the help of media assistants Luke and Matt, that we captured parts of the building where decay and neglect was evident. This was also important as the decay of the building acts as a metaphor for Alex’s own abandonment. The inside of the building was dark and gloomy so it was perfect for our filming as we wanted to capture the sinister atmosphere. Once finished filming in the outside we moved back outside but to the south side to get any last shots we felt we had to get before packing up to head back to Hurtwood. This didn’t take long as we had most the shots we felt necessary for editing our product. We then took all the safety equipment back to the Battersea headquarters and thanked them for their help and time and headed back towards school. Though we had little time to film during the day, we were pleased with our progress and left Battersea with enough shots to make what we hope others will view as a well produced music video.

Task Three

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

through looking at theorists such as Roland Barthes our group discovered the importance of meeting audience expectations. For instance, an audience who enjoys the country western genre will expect all the connotations that come with listening to the genre such as cowboy hats, guitars and horses. The country western genre is predominantly aimed at Americans, from a specific area in America.

Blummer and Katz

These two theorists created the theory of ‘uses and gratifications’. We used their theory to asses our audience response. This is the theory in which they argue that audience responds to media texts in four ways.

1) The audience identify with the characters on the screen
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 and heartache or even confusion as many people go through thee emotions in life.

2) Diversion
Blummer and Katz say that Diversion is the ability to get away or escape mentally from everyday realities. Blummer and Katz say that in order for a media text to be diverting it has to occupy the viewer for more than 70% of the time. 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, emotional stress and even the pains of heartache.

3) Personal Relationship: Blummer and Katz say that personal relationship is about the ability to be able to identify themselves with the characters within the media text.
4) Surveillance: The forth is Surveillance, a supply of information about “what’s going on” in the world.

Stuart Halls theory: Hall looked at 3 ways of encoding images…

* A preferred reading
* An aberrant reading
* A negotiated reading- where feedback group may come back with something that hadn’t been considered in the finished product (An area that could have been improved on).

What have you learned from your audience feed back?

To asses audience feedback we took data from various sources. Firstly, the promo was uploaded onto YouTube so audiences all over the world could easily access our product and write comments on the same page, like you tube we also used our online blogs on the Blogger site. . We also used a Focus Group and friends to answer a questionnaire. I tried to use open questions and a thorough discussion with all members of the focus group through out and realised this was a small scale trial of our pop video and ancillary products.

In terms of our target audience we aimed our product at both males and females. Men could potentially relate themselves to the artist who is portrayed as somewhat of an enigma however he is also conveyed as someone with real charcteristics, as he is not “glammed” up, therefore reducing his chances of becoming a threat to the male sex. Females may relate to the video in the sense that although our star shows realism he also shows a lot of sexual magnetism about him, he’s young and looks attractively rebellious. We hade to concider the age of our target audience and came to the conclusion that anything from 17 to late 20s would suit as we thought any younger and they may not be able to fully understand or appreciate the emotional message we are trying to reveal through our video. In terms of Jictar, we believed that are appropriate target audience was B C D and E these people fit into a minority of classes in society, our main audience are teenagers who are disenfranchised from the adult world, who feel somewhat isolated. Our audience are able to discover their identity for the first time and may relate to the artist as they have most likely encountered relationship issues that were serious for the first time. We chose these people, as they would probably be most likely to appreciate the artistic, modern, urbanised and emotional video that we produced.

Through the use of a 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 character 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 done through the use of the website www.surveymonkey.com

1. Age?
2. Male or female?
3. Favorite music genre?
4. What other forms of media do you use to keep up to date with music?
5. What would you expect to be in a country and western pop video?
6. From the image shown, is the genre of country and western easily recognizable?
7. What type of people do you expect to watch/listen to country and western music?

Did this video stick to or subvert stereotypes about a country and western pop video?

There were a variety of reasons as to why we used a focus group instead of any other methods. One advantage of a focus group was, that people take your questions seriously and consider their answers and get some qualitative results. Secondly, with a questionnaire you have to wait for it to be filled out and then have to read through the information on it, where as the advantage of a focus group is that after asking the questions you get instant answers in return this is quicker, it also means you get an answer that is direct and too the point you don’t have to shift through vast amount of information that is most likely not reliable anyway. Finally, when you are in a focus group it is a face to face process, this allows you to not only see their emotions and reactions to your video but also means that you can start interesting discussions that relate to our pop video.. Are focus group gave us a good insight of how others see our video.

Furthermore, we wanted to check the following with our target audience:

* That decisions we made in the construction and planning were accurate.
* That we read our audience correctly
* That the star image was commercially successful and worth investing further
* That audiences would gain considerable value from the product
* That there was no misinterpretations of the image and messages we have created

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Task Two

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

Through looking at Richard dyer’s theory of star image we have conveyed how elements of the star image are sold through our creative choices in our pop video, digi pack cover and poster. In addition, our group also looked closely at how the three products have worked together to sell the artist and where there may be some contradictions in the images created. A star image is constructed from a range of materials as Richard dyer points out “a star is an image, not a real person”. Dyer has written extensively about the role of stars in film, TV and music, he furthers the ideas of stars being created to sell an therefore go against realism when he says “stars are commodities produced and consumed on the strength of their meanings”. The star we have used in our music video shares many common values of music stardom. Our male singer is young, rebellious and may be seen as a sexual magnet in the eyes of many women. The song is rather aggressive and is original, creative and our singer shows much talent. The fact that our star is alone conforms to the country and western stereotypes of solitude however there is a major element of realism and authenticity in our pop promo as it’s not the typical glossy and positive atmosphere that is constructed in many other pop videos, this is our unique selling point. We have gone against the stereotypical ways of constructing a music video and have used a “naturalistic” approach to our artist and therefore the artist is given time to evolve and progress throughout their career however at the same time we made sure our star is attractive to our audience , as our star emotionally sensitive and is portrayed to be experienced for his age, because of his life crisis and heartache this is extremely attractive to teenage girls as I am sure many can relate to his painful experience. Richard dyer believes that “fundamentally, the star image is incoherent, that is incomplete and open”. He states that this is based on two key paradoxes. Firstly the star must be simultaneously ordinary and extraordinary from the consumer and secondly must be simultaneously present and absent for the consumers. We have followed dyers ideology and have effectively made sure that the fans of our star will go away determined to continue consuming the star in order to carry on attempting to complete their image.

Image 1 is an image of the artist looking directly at the camera and reveals the direct address used in our music video. Although we incorporated little direct address in our product, the audience can still feel a connection between themselves and the artist (star) as it is as if he was singing directly to the audience or fans, trying to include them in his misery and isolation. Moreover our stars sexual magnetism and youth shines through, thus attracting the female target audience. This next image is of the opening shot of our music video. By showing the location we immediately break away from the country and western genre as the image reveals the urban, modern and industrialized setting as opposed to the traditional location usually including hay bales, horses and a barn. The opening shot instantly sets the mode of address and signifies key aspects of the star image. The majority of our music video’s rawness and originality came from the use of the location, Battersea power station. Our chosen location created a lot of emotion, thus an emotional metaphor was created through the dark and sinister landscape that sat in the heart of British culture in central London. Many people can relate to our pop video as most people are aware of battersea power station and know it is a building that represents neglect and abandonment.

Image 3 is used as juxtaposition from the darkness and urban decay to remind the audience that there are some positive aspects of star image. Moreover the glow and brightness of light reflected on our stars face and use of close up further emphasizes our stars quality and furthers the idea that our star is an anecdote towards the troubled young people of today’s society. Moreover the bright colours used here conform to western stereotypes. Image 4 is an example of inter cutting. We used light to create juxtaposition between the dark and sinister atmosphere and the hope and despair of the artist. This particular shot is so powerful and dramatic; it really depicts the singer’s stardom and uniqueness. Moreover the jump cuts used symbolize the unstable and troubled mind of our star. These images and jump cuts paradox the positive and bright atmosphere to reinforce the disheartened and pensive star to emphasise the fact that he is an enigma, the urban decay symbolises the modern day decrepit nature of an economically oppressive society and further breaks the stereotypes of the country and western genre.Another technique we used to construct our star image was blurs, in after effects we blurred some of our shots to reinforce and dramatise the fact that our star is unbalanced and has emotional issues. Our artist is shown constantly holding his guitar with him and this emphasizes how he is clearly organic and competent musically yet he uses the guitar as a social weapon , he doesn’t play it at all in the video, this is to break away once again from the typicality’s of western genres.

Images 5 and 6 show the decaying location, which also symbolizes the abandonment felt by the artist as he feels neglected and uncared for. The image of the artist looking down is our album cover. One can see how the image does conform to the country and western stereotypes as our artist is alone. The use of the font creates a western theme however the distressed look on our artists face reveals how he is in deep thought and further emphasizes the ideas of a new modern day emotional man, thus appealing to the female young target audience as they may be able to relate to the problems he is so clearly struggling with. Furthermore the album cover reveals our artists youth and sexual magnetism which creates his star image.

The image including the artists tour dates is a poster. We used this to promote our star image. Although one can see we have tried to break away from the country and western genre we still used the typical prop of country music, the guitar. We convey a western style font and de saturation of color to ensure that we follow the country and western stereotypes. However the background of urban decay and the general atmosphere of modern day city life once again challenge the audience’s expectations, thus making our star more diverse and interesting, this gives him an edge and differentiates him from other artists.

The image of the guitar is our albums back cover. The use of sepia lighting appears to dramatise and symbolize the unstable and emotional star that we are trying to construct. Thus the guitar shows the stars genuine passion for music and we see his organic image and realism is revealed. This image shows the star to be a true musician and artist. therefore the target audience may connect to our star as they are convinced by his true authenticity of love of music, which further supports his emotional and mysterious image.