How To Find Work On My Blog

Welcome to my A2 media studies blog. On the right hand side of my blog there are gadgets with headings.

Under each heading are posts relating to that specific heading. 

Simply hover the mouse over the links in orange and click. It will direct you onto the page!

  Hope you enjoy and thanks for giving my blog a view!!

Music Video Shot List

I have created a list of shot which we included in our music videos. I also noted the location of the shots to show the various places we went to. I have done this to compare all the shots and see the vast amount of shots we included in the video. This tell the group how technically successful our video is, due to the amount of various shots we used.

As you can see in the list, there is a significant amount of wide and long shots. This is because we wanted to represent nature and the environment as much as possible, as this was the way in showing the dominance of natural scenery in the video.

Record Label

Due our song being folk, we decided as a group that it would only be right to include a record label with a history of folk artists. As we chose Ben Howard, we decided it would be good to have the same record label as the one he is under and therefore we chose Island Records, the company which gave us permission to use the song for educational purposes.

Island records was founded by Chris Blackwell, Graeme Goodall and Leslie Kong in Jamaica in 1959, and includes artists such as Ben Howard, Bombay Bicycle Club, Gotye and Florence and the Machine which are all associated with folk music. Because of Island Records history and assigned folk artists I believe this is a reliable record label to use as they know the folk music industry.

Band Logo and Header

As a group we decided that a band logo, name and header would make us a more recognisable band, and would show our legitimacy. Therefore, I decided to make these on adobe photoshop. I called the band Deer Maria, as the style of font I chose to use for the header was in a handwriting style, and so it links in with Deer Maria as it is like the start of a written letter. What you will notice about the word Deer is that the word is used in the wrong context as it should say Dear. This was done purposefully as Deers are animals which of course represent nature and life, conforming to the music video.

As you can see the logo works really well with the name of the band as it is a deer and inside the outline is an image of the sea and sky, again representing life. The colours in the logo and header are the same in white, showing continuity and making these look really professional 

Contact Sheet

This is a contact sheet of various images taken from the second photo shoot on Wednesday. As you can see they are all quite successful and conform to the genre of folk in terms of style, colour and mis en scene. They also all represent unity and friendship, as they show us three band members enjoying ourselves and making the most of the time we have together.

Deer Maria Social Media (Instagram) Page

I recently created a Instagram page for updates on group B (Deer Maria). This is a successful way of interacting with my audience, informing them on the recent occurrences, as well as promoting the band and the music video for 'Old Pine'. It is also successful in gaining audience feedback, as viewers can simply go on the account and comment on the uploads. I have asked my friends and family to follow the account and make a few comments themselves. Hopefully the products will get positive feedback, and people appreciate the effort me and my group went to into promoting the products.

Questionnaire Findings and Results

Semiotics Theory

Semiotics is the study of signs and sign processes. According to Morris human action involves signs and meaning in three ways:

-Perception stage
-Manipulation Stage
-Consummation Stage

The perception stage is when the person becomes aware of the sign, the manipulation is when the person interprets the sign and decides how to respond to it. Finally the consummation stage is when the person responds.

The semiotic theory can be represented in the music video through album covers and music videos. The connotation of an article is what the article would mean to a member of the audience, this makes music more personal whereas the denotation of an article is what it was intended to mean. This is the meaning that the musician has given a song. They often represent this through use of their music videos.

As well as semantics there is syntactics which is the relationship among signs in formal structures, and there is pragmatics, the relation between signs and their effects on those who use them.

A2 Media Studies Final Music Video - 'Old Pine' by Ben Howard, Courtesy of Island Records

Music Video Response Questionnaire

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Poster and Digipack Response Questionnaire

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How I Made The CD Packaging - Inside

Digipack production - Inside from Owen Davison

How I Made The CD Packaging - Back Cover

How I Made The CD Packaging - Front Cover

Parody and Pastiche

A parody is seen as a way of taking something and mocking its original form in a comedic and humorous way. Parodies are generally exaggerated imitations of an artist or genre and they can be seen in various media platforms. One example would be the 'Scary Movie' films that take scenes and conventions of horror movies such as, Scream, Saw and The Ring, and they are then portrayed in a humorous and sarcastic way to mock the genres never changing style.

A successful example of a parody used in a music video is Red Hot Chili Pepper's, 'Dani California'. It takes on a different eras of music and the style of this era, then exaggerates and stereotypes the fashion, making symbolic references to The Beatles, Sex Pistols, Nirvana. The video is chronological and show the history of rock music going from era to era and imitating the great and most successful artists of the genre. This is all before they act as themselves, symbolising that they are the next great rock band. The video emphasises the style, fashion, colours and representation of different bands and different eras of rock



Pastiche is similar to parodies in the way that it is about imitating the style of another work, artist, or era. However, it does this in a less emphasied way, which is not so comedic. Pastiche is often intended as a compliment to the original writer though it may just be a collection of borrowed words and ideas. Pastiche is evident in the music video 'The Kill (Bury Me)' by 30 Second To Mars as they use iconography from the popular film the shining, as the scenery is immensely similar to that of the film in that it is in a hotel and the main protagonist sits on a typewriter throughout the video just as the main character did in The Shining. 

Analysis of 'Elysium', Music Video

Before choosing to use the song 'Old Pine by Ben Howard, this as the original song my group were meant to use for the music video. I have decided to place this video on my blog and analyse it as I believe it is a very successful and emotional music video.

Like my video and the video Old Pine, in which I have previously analysed, it is evident one of the main representations is friendship and the importance of togetherness. The video can be interpreted as tragic, but personally I believe it is inspirational, as even though it includes the loss of a friend it shows how people can get past the loss with the help of other friends who are going through the same pain. It is a really sad and emotion video, and due to it being real footage, many audience members can relate and have sympathy for the people involved in the video. The video is effective in showing the different emotions of the characters and the pain they may be going through. However, the crescendo in the music is connoting that the people are getting past the loss, and remembering their friend for the good times, and not mourning as much, and so this could connote that although the video is sad, it is also supportive as it is showing audiences whare going through the same thing, that it will eventually get better.

Analysis of Real Media 'Old Pine' Music Video

Old Pine by Ben Howard is the song my group chose to use for our music video, and so I thought it would be nice to analyse the real media video and compare it to the video myself, Matthew and Boj created.


The evident symbolism and representation in this video is nature with shots of the sky, sea, cliffs, greenery, trees etc. Comparing this to our video, the representation of nature also is evident too, with shots of the river mersey, and time lapses of humans to connote life. Another evident similarity between this video and my own, is the use of time lapses which I believe represent the quickness of life and how we should cherish every moment. What I like about this video is the used of the lens flare, which makes the video seem natural, again showing that representation of nature, which is often evident in folk media products. The use of wide and establishing shots, similarly to my video, is to give the audience the full frame and realise the beauty of the environment. The scene with Ben Howard walking towards the camera and lip syncing really inspired my music video,as I did a scene very similar, where by I was lip syncing whilst walking towards the camera in front of the mersey. I believed this was a very successful shot as it shows both the emotion of the protagonist whilst keeping the representation of nature and ts importance with naturalistic scenery in the background. The representation of friendship is also conveyed in this video, in the wide shot of two people climbing on the side of a cliff and joking around, which conforms to a representation often shown in folk video, and which is also shown in my music video. A final similarity of this video and mine is the clothing, which is casual showing the simplicity often represented in folk music.

Moodboard Of My Time In Mexico

Analysing Other Students A2 Music Videos

Poster Questionnaire

Gender:

Male        Female

Age:

10-15    16-20    21-25    26-30    31-40    41-50    51-60    61-70    70 years and over  

What genre of music do you like?

____________________________

Have you ever heard of Folk music?

Yes        No

Some Examples of folk music are Bob Dylan, Bon Iver, Tracy Chapman, Ben Howard, Simon and Garfunkel, and Bears Den. For this genre what would you expect to see on the poster?

___________________________________________________________________________

What colour do you think represents folk music the most? (You can circle more than one)

Red   Green   Blue   Yellow   Purple   Black   Brown   Pink   Orange   White   Other________

What Features are important to you on a Poster? (Please rate 1-5, 5 being the most important)

A picture of the singer or band    1   2   3   4   5

The band’s name    1   2   3   4 5

Tour Dates   1   2   3   4   5

List of songs     1   2   3   4   5

Prices of Concert Tickets    1   2   3   4   5

Links to Social Media     1   2   3   4   5

Website Address    1   2   3   4   5

On what platform would you primarily see posters?

TV                   Phone                       iPad                     Outside                        None

Would you like the poster to relate to the video or be separate and contrast?

Yes                              No